Chapter 35: Still Charmed & Kicking Part 2

Buffy watched as Piper, Phoebe, Paige and Leo sat around the scrying table in the attic writing on slips of paper.

Joyce, Victor and Dawn had all gone out to eat. It turned out that Victor and Joyce had known each other, in fact it had been Victor who introduced Joyce to Patty before he knew either of them had been witches.

As Piper, Paige and Leo finished writing on their slips of paper, Phoebe began gathering them up.

"Okay," Phoebe said as she grabbed Paige's.

"Hey, I'm not done," Paige argued.

"Doesn't matter. You are now," Phoebe said as she walked over to the potions table. "It's an identity, not a novel. As long as these reflect who we're trying to be, and where we've come from, we're all good." She looked at the slips. "Okay, Julie, nice. Jo, Jenny ... Louis?"

"Louie," Leo said. "You know, like Louie Armstrong. You know, the great satchmo? The

trumpeter?"

"Yeah. I think dad used to listen to him," Piper said as she noticed Buffy laugh at the jab.

"Okay, if you can deal with it, so can the government," Phoebe said.

"I can deal with Jo," Buffy said.

Phoebe put the slips of paper into the potions pot and added a pinch of something. The potion exploded and a cloud of white smoke rose up. "Voila! New identities."

"Are you sure?" Paige asked.

"Only one way to find out," Phoebe said eagerly as she started for the attic door. "Let's go shopping!"

"No," Piper said.

"Yep. Come on."

Piper stood up to try and stop her sister. No. Wait. No," she said as she, Paige and Buffy followed Phoebe down the stairs.

"Come on!" Phoebe said. "We have seven years of lost time to make up for. We have to start somewhere."

"Uh, yeah, I know, but ..." Piper said hesitantly.

"No buts. We are free," Phoebe argued. "Do you have any idea what that means? It means no more demons, no more cops. We can do whatever we want."

Piper glanced at Buffy with a sigh. It was what she wanted. Time to do whatever she wanted with her sons, with her husband, with her own step-daughter. "I know. I know, but still ..."

"Would you please talk some sense into this woman?" Phoebe asked looked at Paige and Buffy.

"You know what occurred to me - that real estate agent your dad was talking about?" Paige said. "If ya think about it, he may be a ..."

"Oh, my God!" Phoebe said nearly shouting. "If you say the D word, I might implode."

"Well it is possible, Phoebe," Buffy said. "Think about it. They will want to know you are dead. That the house is vulnerable, that Wyatt, Chris and I are vulnerable."

Phoebe sighed. "Come on, you guys, what's wrong? Besides Buffy's valid point. "I mean, isn't this what we wanted?"

"Yes. It's just - it's not as simple as I had hoped, that's all," Piper said.

"You know why?" Phoebe said. "Because you haven't been out yet, and you will feel so much better in a new pair of shoes."

"I don't need new shoes," Piper said.

"Mom," Buffy said. "Let me treat you to a pair of shoes. Your talking to the shopping queen of Hemery High."

"Also can't we just at least try to have fun?" Phoebe asked. "Don't we owe ourselves that much?"

"Yes, we do ..." Piper agreed.

"That's the spirit. Paige? I mean, 'Jo'? Your shoes are on me."

"Um, I may just stay here and relax a little," Paige said.

"Relax. I like it. Relax," Phoebe said.

"Would you like me …" Buffy started to say.

"No go on, get those shoes for Piper," Paige said. "You and I can do something later."

"If you're sure."

"Come on," Phoebe said as Paige nodded. She took Piper and Buffy and pulled them down the stairs.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Sometime later Paige sat in the attic talking to Grams. "Piper has Leo. Piper has the boys. Piper even has my girlfriend, buying her shoes. What do I have? I have a giant, sucking hole of nothingness," she said with a sigh.

"Oh, please, Paige, spare me the dramatics and cut to the chase, will you? I've got an afterlife to live, you know," Grams replied.

"See? Even you have a life, and you're dead. I just don't know where to start," Paige said as she sat down.

"Well, you know, it's not like anybody asked for my opinion before abandoning the Charmed legacy in the first place."

"Thanks, Grams," Paige said sarcastically. "I'm so glad you came. You've been a great help."

"Look, honey, I'm - I'm sorry, but you're the one who - who got yourself into this mess, not me," Grams said.

"I didn't have a choice, okay? We didn't have a choice. We were going to die the real way."

"I understand, and I'm not judging you," Grams said. "Well, maybe I am a little, but - but my point is that you've made a choice whether you were forced into it or not, and you've gotta live with that choice, whether you like it or not."

"What if I can't?" Paige wondered.

"Oh, that's ridiculous."

"No, it's not. I ... I want a life outside of magic," Paige said. "I really do, but ..."

"But what?" Grams wondered.

"But it's the jingling, okay?" Paige said. "I hear it night and day, which means that someone other than Joyce, Dawn or Buffy is constantly calling for my help."

"That is just the Whitelighter in you."

"But that's still me, Grams, and that's still magic. So what if I can't ever really get away from it?"

"Well ... one thing is for sure, young lady," Grams said as she stood up. "You're

never gonna find what you're looking for sitting around here. You want a fresh

start? Then pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get out into the world and try

it on for size. See what happens."

"I don't know."

"Hey, you don't want my advice, don't conjure me next time. Now get up," Grams said as she took Paige's hands and pulled her up. "Get a grip, and don't come back until you find your thrill! Now go! And btw maybe you should start with Buffy. One thing I heard a lot is the subtext. You love her don't you?"

"Yes," Paige said, "of course I do."

"Maybe that explains this?" Grams said as she held up the driver's license that showed 'Jo's' picture. "Look at the age?"

Paige's eyes went wide. "17? I don't remember when we …"

"You must have," Grams said. "Unconsciously you gave yourself a way to be with her."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy, Piper and Phoebe exited a shoes, their arms were full of shoe box bags. Even though Buffy had said she was going to buy a pair of shoes for Piper, she wound up borrowing money from Phoebe to buy the shoes Piper had wanted.

"Unh! He was not hitting on me," Piper said.

"He was, too. He was practically drooling on you," Phoebe said.

"Okay, first, I'm married," Piper objected. "Secondly, he's a salesman in a women's shoe store. What are the chances he's not gay?"

"Who cares?" Phoebe smiled. "Just enjoy. That's our new mantra, right?"

Buffy smiled. "Ph … Jenny's right, Julie," she said in agreement.

Piper stopped and looked at her 'new' reflection in the store window. "Still, maybe Paige is right. I don't think this new look is me."

"I think you look hot," Buffy said. "I know if you weren't, you know who. I definitely would be interested."

Piper glanced at Buffy. "Easy, daughter of mine. Don't creep me out."

"Hey, Buffy's not your daughter and we're not sisters anymore, remember? We're all cousins, well all of us except Buffy since she is Leo's daughter. Or rather was." Phoebe reminded Piper.

Piper sighed. "Regardless of whose daughter Buffy is technically, it's still creepy," she said as they resumed walking down the sidewalk. "Isn't there any part of you that doubts your decision at all?"

Phoebe shook her head. "No, I mean, I like both pairs of shoes, so I bought both pairs of shoes."

"I don't think she means the shoes," Buffy said.

"Buffy's right. The pretending to be dead to the rest of the world."

"Oh, well, yeah, I mean, obviously there were certain aspects of my life that I really liked, but I couldn't fully enjoy it because of all the witch stuff," Phoebe said. "Which now that I think about it makes me appreciate why Joyce bound her own, Buffy and Dawn's powers when Buffy and Dawn were little."

"Yeah, but the witch stuff is who we are," Piper said. "I mean, we can't just walk around pretending we don't have powers anymore."

"You don't have to," Buffy said. "You can still teach Wyatt and Chris how to use theirs."

"We also don't have to use our powers every other week to save the world," Phoebe added.

Piper sighed. "What about the fact that the last three decades of our life are suddenly gone?"

"Well, we have to give up something to gain something. Look, you wanted a normal life more than all of us. Right? So what's changed all of a sudden?" Phoebe wondered.

"I'm a little neurotic. What do you want from me?" Piper wondered.

"That's not it," Buffy said.

"What else is it?" Phoebe said in agreement.

"It's just it's a big change, and I don't do change very well," Piper said. "Look how long it took you, Buffy, to call me mom."

"That was more because of me," Buffy said.

"That was also because of me," Piper said. "We both agreed at the time it would be weird." She looked at her sister. "So, just let me freak out for a little while and then, you know, I'm sure I'll be fine."

"Okay. You wanna go get our eyebrows plucked?" Phoebe asked.

"Gee, I'd love to, but, uh ... No, I gotta go check on P3 and make sure dad hasn't done a lot of damage," Piper said as she handed her packages to Phoebe. "Besides, how am I going to be able to give Buffy an allowance to give to you to pay for all these shoes?" She looked to Buffy. "Want to come along?"

Buffy looked up at the sky and then at Piper. "No, I'm getting a call from Pa … Jo."

"Okay," Piper said as she started across the street.

Buffy gave Phoebe her bags and then headed down a nearby alley and orbed out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Paige sat at a sidewalk table drinking a cup of coffee waiting for Buffy to show up. She looked around at the people and caught her reflection in the glass window. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Buffy walking toward.

"So," Buffy said, "what's a beautiful girl sitting here all by herself?"

"Well, rub it in. Heh," Paige said with a small laugh.

"Paige?" Buffy said as she sat down. "Everything, okay?"

"Half and half," Paige replied. "On the one hand its just difficult with the new me. On the other hand it's not so difficult for you."

"What do you mean?" Buffy wondered.

Paige slid her driver's license across the table. "Look at my age. Or rather Jo's age."

"Seventeen?" Buffy asked shocked to see that Paige was now officially only a year older than she was.

"Yeah," Paige said.

"I'm sure you don't like the idea of going back to school," Buffy said. "But it is going to be nice to not have to sneak around with my girlfriend because she's ten years older."

Suddenly they both heard a woman scream; they turned and saw the woman struggling against a purse-snatcher. The purse-snatcher grabbed the woman's purse while pushing the woman away.

Automatically, Paige stood up and ran over to help as the purse-snatcher ran away.

"Paige?" Buffy said as she jumped up and ran after Paige as they chased the purse-snatcher.

They stopped at the sidewalk entrance to the subway where they saw the purse and its contents on the ground.

Paige looked around, disgusted with herself. "Damn it. Why didn't I orb?" she asked as she heard someone calling for her again. "Would you stop that, already? I give up." She turned and walked into a nearby alley followed by Buffy.

"Paige?" Buffy said again as Paige grabbed her hand and they orbed out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

In an old movie theatre, movie-goers watched a monster-movie matinee. In the back row, a demon sat down behind a large man holding a tub of popcorn and a drink.

On the movie screen, the monster appeared causing the man to gasp. The demon raised a glowing hand toward the movie goer and the man starts to gasp for breath.

Finally, the man stopped breathing, his head falling back against the seat.

Satisfied, the demon put his hand down and got up to walk over to the side just as Paige and Buffy orbed in. They immediately noticed the demon looking at them.

"Did you call for me?" Paige asked the demon.

"I don't think so. You don't have the power to stop me, Whitelighter," the demon said.

"You obviously don't know who I am ... which is probably a good thing," Paige said.

"She may not have the power, but I do," Buffy said as the demon using super-speed charged her, pushing her down into the aisle.

"Buffy!" Paige whispered as she watched the demon power up a fireball.

"Doesn't that burn your hand?"

The demon distracted by the sound of a woman's voice looked in that direction giving Buffy time to orb out and in next to Paige. He threw the fireball at the woman who jumped up and flipped over the fireball, which missed her completely. She landed on the arms of a theatre seat.

"Damn. I was hoping for such a better fight with my first demon," she said. "You are a demon, aren't you?"

The demon powered up a second fireball and hurls it at Billie. She raised her hand and the fireball swerved away from her and flew back to the demon. He jumped to the ground, just barely missing the fireball. He looked to the woman as she jumped off the armrest.

"Now help me out here. I'm new at this. Who pays for that?" the woman asked as the demon glanced at Buffy and Paige before shimmering out.

Billie turned and headed out of the theatre just as Paige and Buffy ran to catch her.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

In the kitchen of the manor Victor and Joyce were washing dishes as Dawn entered carrying more dirty plates. "Still a couple more loads out there," she said.

"You're kidding me," Victor said with a sigh.

"Why don't we get the girls to do a little hocus pocus, huh?" Victor asked as Dawn walked back out of the kitchen.

Joyce sighed. "No. And Dawn and I are not doing it either. If Paige, Piper and Phoebe truly want to live a life without magic, they have to get out of the habit of relying on it. Otherwise, they're never gonna have normal lives."

"Yeah, right," Victor scoffed. "Like that's ever gonna happen."

"It can, Victor," Joyce said. "Just like it did with me when Patty died."

"That was different though wasn't it," Victor said. "You bound, yours, Buffy and Dawn's powers. Still you came back to it when you found out that Buffy was called as the Slayer. And the girls will too. Being magical is part of who they are, just as it is a part of who you are. They may have been able to change your identities, but they can't change that."

"They'll do the best they can," Joyce replied.

"Yeah, but what if that's not good enough?" Victor asked. "I mean, I don't mean to sound pessimistic here, 'cause I really want this to work out ... but it's not gonna be easy ... especially for Leo and Piper as well as Paige and Buffy.

"Why especially for them?" Joyce wondered.

"'Cause Piper and Leo got the boys to raise like this, and Paige and Buffy have their relationship to consider. A relationship where Buffy is still a witch and a Slayer. She is still in the thick of it," Victor said.

Joyce sighed. "I know. And for what it's worth. I know how you feel. Remember I left this behind for Buffy and for Dawn. I didn't want them to go through what I went through with Patty. What Piper and Phoebe went through with Prue. I truly hope this works for them also."

Just then they heard someone orbing in behind them. They turned to see an Elder standing there.

"Whoa," Victor said.

"I mean either of you no harm, Victor, Joyce," the Elder said. "My name is Jonah. I'm an Elder, and I just

need to talk to you, Victor, all right?"

Victor nodded. "All right."

"Good. Now I know what you've gone through. What you still must be going through. Children should bury their fathers, not the other way around," Jonah said.

"What is it you want?" Joyce wondered.

"We've been talking."

"We?" Victor asked as he glanced at Joyce and then back at Jonas.

"The other Elders and myself about the boys, Wyatt and Chris losing their parents, their aunts," Jonah said. "It's unspeakable, especially considering who they were. Which is why we feel very strongly that it would be in the boys' best interest –"

"You're not taking them," Victor said flatly. "Forget it."

"Victor, you're mortal," Jonah said. "You can't possibly raise them to be –"

"First off," Joyce interrupted. "Victor is their grandfather. That's all he needs to be. Second of all, Piper and Leo's Will's stated that Buffy, Wyatt and Chris's sister, will gain guardianship of them when she turns eighteen. She will be the one raising them and with mine and Dawn's help, she will be able to teach them about their powers. And if Victor needs us to help protect them from evil, all he has to do is call. We'll orb here straight away."

Jonah sighed. He could see there would be no reasoning with either Joyce or Victor. "I pray you two know what you're doing," he said as he orbed out.