'Oops!'

"Thank God, it was just a dream." Jared thought, waking from the most horrifying nightmare his subconscious mind had yet to deal him. "I thought Rory was gonna say 'I see dead people' at any second."

He allowed himself a moment to soak in his sense of relief before pushing himself up out of the bed. It amused him to feel so unusually thankful for such commonplace things: the electricity that powered the nearby alarm clock, and the warm, comforting glow of the setting sun streaming lazily through the bedroom window, and the ability to clearly see his own hand as he waved it in front of his face. Rolling to one side he felt his cold, sweat-soaked shirt sticking to his back.

Though everything at first seemed as it should be, there was one element of his dream that remained: the house was still perfectly silent. "Maybe everyone went out to dinner and they just didn't want to wake me up." Giving the silence little consideration, Jared got out of bed, stepped into his shoes, and moseyed down the second floor hallway.

As he descended the staircase he decided he would take a brief look at the grandfather clock, just to be sure that everything was in order. "Phew!" he said to himself as he beheld the clock face. "I've never been so happy to see the roman numerals one through twelve in my life."

"Jared? Sweetheart, is that you?" It was his mother's voice calling to him from inside the kitchen.

"Yeah Mom." Jared hollered back, headed in her direction. "Where is everybody?"

"They just stepped out for a bit." she called back. "They should be back soon."

As he entered the kitchen, Jared asked: "Where'd they all g-…"

"SURPRISE!" cheered Jared's family, nearly scaring him out of his own skin. "HAPPY 'OOPS' DAY!"

The kitchen was loudly decorated with streamers and construction paper cutouts of lightening bolts, tornadoes, and thunderclouds.

"Happy what?" Jared asked, as Paige put a golden cardboard crown on top of his head. "What's goin' on?"

"Well," said Piper, "according to your brothers, every single one of them either accidentally blew something up or broke something when they were first learning to use their powers."

"So," said Leo, eager to contribute, "your mother and I thought maybe we should treat each son's first power-related "accident" as a witch's 'rite of passage'. And, from now on, the first time any of you accidentally break something or blows something up, we'll throw a party that night to celebrate."

"And every year after that." added Piper. "Sorta like a second birthday."

"Might as well, right? It happens to the best of us." Paige said with her traditional smirk and proud tilt of the head. "And I should know."

"And this is, of course, after all you guys are born." concluded Piper.

"But didn't they tell you?" said Jared. "I've already wrecked the entire downstairs of the Manor… three different times."

"Actually, that was taken into consideration." Lee said. "We decided that those shouldn't count because you were asleep when they happened."

"Plus, how do we know it was you?" asked Steve. "I hope you weren't expecting us to just take your word for it? I mean, what would Judge Judy say?"

"Bottom line." Dylan added. "It's either a fully conscious 'oops' or it's no 'oops' at all."

Piper smirked playfully at Jared. "Isn't it interesting how all of these rules just happen to work in your favor?"

Jared's cheeks began to literally ache from the uncontainable widening of his smile. "Actually, I did pick up on that."

"Convenient, huh?" Piper teased.

"You guys, this… You really didn't have to do this." Jared said graciously. "Thank you so much."

"Actually," said Leo, "It was Chris who suggested we do something special this evening. All the rest of us did was to decide we should make it an official holiday."

"We tried to get the banks and post offices to close." said Lee. "But I swear, some people just refuse to listen to reason."

"Don't you fret though." Steve insisted. "We've got a call in to the governor, he's gonna take care of everything."

"Unfortunately, the schools will remain open." Dylan sighed. "Apparently there's a minimum requirement of in-class days or something ridiculous like that."

Jared's face was completely flushed. Being innately modest, he had never been one to actively seek out the spotlight. Even so, he did handle it quite gracefully, albeit nervously. Still, though he had yet to put his finger on it, something did seem a bit off. "Where's Chris?" he asked.

"Do you guys smell that?" Paige asked, blatantly avoiding the question.

"You're right." Piper replied. "Something must be burning."

"Oh, you know what… I bet I know what it is." said Leo. "It must be all the candles on that cake the boys made for Jared."

"They made what for me?"

The semi-circle of family members parted before to reveal a certain Chris Halliwell stepping ceremoniously toward Jared with a large, candle-covered cake in his hand.

"You know," Steve said. "Suddenly, I feel like singing."

"That's so weird!" Paige gasped. "So do I!"

"What's stoppin' ya?" asked Piper.

Seconds later, the kitchen rang with the sounds of silly, gleeful voices singing "Happy 'Oops' Day to Jared" to the tune of 'Happy Birthday'. He laughed and shook his head at the intentional over-the-top-ness of the gesture. "You guys are outta your minds!"

The song ended in laughter, cheers, and applause, with Chris standing just before the distinguished honoree, presenting him with the flawlessly crafted cake. Even Chris himself felt a bit embarrassed, but he had made quite a fuss earlier, when the party givers were deciding who should be the one to present the cake itself.

The cake was dark blue, with many candles carefully placed in the shape of a large lightening bolt spreading diagonally across the top. Of course Lee had played the role of the baker, and Jared immediately recognized the design as Dylan's handiwork. He chuckled at the cartoonish design and looked back and forth between Dylan and Lee. "Wonder who the evil geniuses are behind this creation?"

Lee answered coyly, "You mean the triple-layered chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream? -- No idea."

Dylan stroked his chin pensively, pretending to study the cake as though it were a famous painting. "Yes, yes…Whoever designed this edible masterpiece is clearly a brilliant artist." he said. "Such passion! Such drama!"

"Such ego!" Jared tauntingly added.

"Make a wish!" said Piper.

Jared searched his thoughts for a few seconds trying to imagine an appropriate wish for such a party, but ultimately decided, "Thanks, but I don't need to."

"Awwww." the room chanted in unison.

Everyone fell silent and all mouths hung open as they all waited for the 'man of the hour' to blow out his candles. "I wonder…" Jared thought, tempted to try a little experiment. Heck, why not? He smoothly glided one hand above the cake from one side to the other, summoning the smallest of breezes, just enough to blow out each of the candles.

"Showoff," said Chris, as laughs and applause sprang up around them. "I'd let you send me to Oz on a tornado any day. You know that, right?" he said, as the clapping was dying down.

Jared's face softened in a calm serenity, the appreciative look in his eyes doing the talking for him.

"Happy 'Oops' Day', little brother," said Chris, noticeably embarrassed by the silliness of his own comment. Still, the sentiment was true nonetheless. "Oh, and thanks for that whole 'rescuing my ass from the falling chandelier this afternoon."

"Hey, no sweat." Jared said casually. "Besides, you were too busy playing tour guide to a Darklighter to notice. And I didn't even know the house was up for sale."

Chris played along. "It isn't!" he said. "Can you believe I did all that work for nothing?"

Jared enjoyed the simple moment with his brother, the moment he'd hoped for all day long, until it was time to return (mentally speaking) to the rest of the room.

"Aaaaaand..." said Leo, holding out a rectangular gift box with silver wrapping paper, "we gotcha somethin' else!"

"Oh man, this it too much." Though Jared spoke with genuine modesty, he spared no effort in tearing through the wrapping paper. And there in front of him was his gift: The Golden Girls: Seasons 1 through 7 on DVD. He looked pleadingly at his mother. "Mom?"

Piper raised her hands in a gesture of innocence. "Believe it or not, that was not my idea."

"Suuuuuure it wasn't," Jared said with a grin.

"Oh what, like we didn't know?" said Dylan.

After a moments pondering, Jared eyed Lee accusingly, determined to mercilessly torture whoever it was who exposed him as a Golden Girls fan. "You mind-snooping little…"

"Hey, don't look at me!" said Lee. "I'm not the one who didn't delete the history tracker on the television."

Oh my God, he's right! Jared hid his face behind the DVD box. "Ohhh no." he moaned. "I'm never gonna live this down."

"And guess what else…" Paige added, reaching over and pulling the box down from Jared's reddening face. "We've scheduled a Golden Girls marathon starting at 7 o'clock tonight, provided there's no demon attack. If there is, we'll just get started up as soon as they're all vanquished." She kissed her nephew with sincere affection on his blushing cheek and gave him a quick squeezing hug.

"Okay, now just you're just pulling my leg, right?"

"Shush!" said Chris, "You're king for a day. Now shut up and enjoy it."

He has such a way with words, Jared thought.

"And look at this!" Steve said, leaning over and pointing at the back of the Season 7 box. "There's even a quiz on the special features menu to figure out which 'Golden Girl' you're the most like!"

"Sounds like somebody's itching to get started." Jared mocked.

"Jared, which one do you think you are?" Leo asked, taking a genuine paternal interest.

"Uh… I dunno."

"He's totally Rose, all the way." Steve insisted.

"The stupid one?" asked Jared. "Thanks a lot, Steve."

"Correction! The sweet, stupid one."

"Oh, well then that just changes everything!"

"Chris, would mind cutting the cake?" asked Piper

"Sure mom." Chris answered, and carried the newly baked cake over to the center island.

"Okay people, listen up!" shouted Piper. "Now, I just have one rule before we get this thing rolling: Only one person at a time is allowed to beg Jared for forgiveness. Don't worry, everyone who needs it will have their chance. Any questions?"

Steve raised his hand. Chris immediately pulled it back down. "No thanks, Mom.We're good!"

"Alright." said Piper. "Then off we go!"

"Somebody HELP ME!" rang Wyatt's desperate voice from inside the Dining Room.

Everyone rushed hurriedly out of the Kitchen and into the Dining Room. Inside, Wyatt kneeled on the floor, holding the limp body of an angelic young man with curly, dark-brown hair. Both Wyatt and Rory were soaked from head to toe, just as their father had been only hours earlier.

Wyatt looked up at his brothers and wept, with tearful, weary, bloodshot eyes. "I can't heal him." he cried. "He won't let me."