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Published 25-3-2024

Chapter Seven

Reforging Bonds

Piper stared at the apartment door, gathering her courage. She didn't like doing this, but she'd rather throw aside her pride and accept the assassin-Nico-into the family than lose both of her children. She'd lost Kate once, and she couldn't go through that again.

She and Leo had begged Wyatt for Kate and Nico's new address, and he reluctantly agreed to give it to them on the condition that they swore they wouldn't say anything against their new son-in-law, which they'd agreed to.

Piper glanced at her husband, who was squaring his shoulders, and he met her gaze with anxious eyes. "It'll be okay," she told him. "We'll talk to Kate and...and Nico, and we'll fix this. We won't lose her again."

He nodded, though she knew the worry in his eyes reflected her own.

She reached out and knocked.

They heard shuffling and voices, before the door opened and revealed Nico, tense as if for battle, his jaw tight.

"Kate's not here right now, Mrs. Halliwell, Mr. Wyatt," Nico said curtly. "And frankly, she's not interested in speaking to you, either."

"We want to speak to you too," Piper replied as steadily as she could. "We're not here to fight," she added when he tensed up even more. "We just- we want to explain ourselves. To apologize for-for everything."

Nico looked suspicious, but he stepped aside and allowed them into the apartment. Several men were present, including at least one who Piper was certain was a demon. They all shared the same hard eyes, and sat or stood as if ready to launch into battle with a second's notice. They reminded her of Kate.

"Do all of you remember the other timeline?" Leo asked, clearly seeing what she did.

"Yes," the demon confirmed curtly. "We were all killed by Wyatt the day Kate went back. As we died, we used a spell to send our memories of the Dark Timeline to our counterparts here. That way Kate wouldn't be alone, and we wouldn't forget everything that happened. There was a lot, good and bad, that we wanted to remember. There's three hundred and fifty-two of us with memories of the Dark Timeline, counting Kate and Nico. It's hard for the kids, but they know they can talk to any of us if they need to."

"Oh," Piper said softly, uncertain how to respond to that. Her heart ached for the children haunted by the terrors of the original future, yet she was grateful Kate wasn't dealing with it alone, that she had people who understood.

"What did you want to discuss with me?" Nico asked coolly. They turned to him, and saw him leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes hard and stern.

"Like I said," Piper replied. "We want to explain ourselves and apologize."

She didn't bother to ask for them to speak privately. She could sense instinctively the loyalty these people shared. Even if Nico agreed to send them away, they wouldn't leave.

"Then go right ahead," Nico drawled, gesturing with one hand. Piper took a deep breath.

"Losing you destroyed Kate," she said finally. She saw something flicker in Nico's eyes at that, and his friends stiffened. "Something broke in her. We could all see it in her eyes, how devastated and shattered she was. She stopped caring whether she got hurt or not. Her only goal was to change the future. Not change and get back to it, like it was before then. And, and I've always known that if she still thought you were waiting for her back in the future, she would've been more careful that day, and she would have survived. I don't know how I know-maybe it's mother's intuition, but I know it's the truth. She didn't want to go back, when she thought you wouldn't be there.

And every time I see you, I see her with your hand stuck in her chest, and that look of shock and devastation on her face, like her world was collapsing around her. I see her, feverish and muttering your name on the couch. And I feel so, so angry and afraid for her."

"It's the same for me," Leo added softly. "We lost Kate the minute you died, and we've never been able to get over that, and that, that wasn't fair. Not to you, and not to Kate, either. We've taken it out on you, when really the only person to blame is Gideon, for going after Wyatt and kil-killing Kate in the first place. I'm sorry."

"We both are," Piper added earnestly. "We shouldn't have-we shouldn't have done a lot of things. We're not going to ask you to accept our apology. Not yet, at least. But we hope that you can at least work on letting us make it up to you. To both of you."

"Why?" Nico asked, his expression guarded and wary. Piper understood his suspicions. They hadn't exactly made any indication of changing their minds, after all.

But there was nothing a Halliwell wouldn't do for their family. Exhibit A: Kate erasing over two decades' worth of history to save her brother.

And the world, but if she hadn't cared about Wyatt, she'd have killed him, not died to save him. Piper knew her daughter. She knew that Kate could have done it. She'd have hated herself for killing a baby, but she'd have done it if she hadn't loved him so much.

"Because Phoebe had a premonition," Piper answered honestly, "And I don't want to keep going down a route that will cause both of my children to turn their backs on our family forever. She Saw Kate cast a spell to force us to stay away from her and your children. I don't want that. I don't want to lose my children, and I don't want to be kept from my grandchildren. If forgiving you for breaking Kate's heart back then, and getting over my prejudices to apologize for my insults towards you, are what keep that from happening, then that's what I'll do. It's what we'll do."

Leo nodded in support, grasping Piper's hand tightly.

Nico nodded slowly. His dark eyes flickered briefly to the side, to one of the men who gave a slight nod. Piper realized he must be some sort of telepath or empath, and Nico was checking if they were telling the truth. They didn't take the empath blocking potion anymore, seeing as all of the empaths and telepaths in the extended Halliwell clan were long since trained in blocking out other's emotions and thoughts, so he could read them. The man inclined his head slightly, and Nico looked back at them.

"I'll talk to Kate," he said briskly. "But, I'm inclined to accept your apology. I would probably have been just as angry and protective in your position. I want you to know, though, that hurting Kate was never my goal. I wanted to save her."

Staring at him, Piper saw what her anger and grief had always blinded her to. Nico's hard expression softened at Kate's mere name. In the wedding photo on the wall, the two of them looked at each other with a happiness and peace Piper had never seen before in either version of her serious daughter, always weighed down as Kate was, either by her mission or her heavy destiny as Excalibur's heir. They loved each other, deeply and truly and desperately, in a way that only people who had gone through hell and back together could.

"I understand," she whispered, remembering how devastating losing Leo had been, back when the kids were babies and they were facing off against Billie and Christy. And she'd known that she would get her husband back eventually. How much worse was it for Kate, to know (or at least believe) that the man she'd loved and fought beside was gone forever? No wonder she'd stopped caring what happened to her.

Nico nodded, and Piper took the signal to leave, her and Leo beginning to head for the door.

"Mrs. Halliwell, Mr. Wyatt!" Nico called when they were halfway down the hall to the elevator. They turned back to him expectantly. "The baby," he stated. "She's due in July. We're calling her Mirielle Victoria," he told them, his expression soft. "Miri for short."

Piper smiled. "It's a beautiful name," she said softly.

"It means miracle," Nico replied. He hesitated then added. "I'm glad you're willing to come to a truce," he told them, sincerity clear in his eyes. "Kate-she misses you a lot. I know she wants us to get along."

Piper thought of the card with the number of the witch grief counsellor burning a hole in her purse and nodded. "For her, for Miri, we will," she vowed.

Nico nodded and turned to head back to his apartment. Piper and Leo entered the lift, and Piper removed the card, along with her phone.

"Are you sure, Piper?" Leo asked her gently.

She nodded, biting back tears. "It's long overdue, Leo," she sighed. "We've been ignoring our grief for years. You did better than me, but both of us have let our grief dictate how we treat our children. We need to do this. I need to do this. For them, and for our grandchild."

Humanity had no word for parents who lost a child. It was a thought to terrible to name, an offence against nature. They hadn't had a funeral for their Other daughter. Hadn't been sent flowers or condolence cards. Leo had dealt with his grief by hunting down Barbas for revenge and trying to change the world completely with the Avatars. Piper had simply denied everything, overprotecting Kate physically while at the same treating her as a miniature adult mentally, entrusting her with watching out for her brother and cousins.

Now, Kate had her memories of the Other timeline back, but they still had that grief lying heavy on their hearts. They still had nightmares of Kate bleeding to death on the bed they'd burned, at the hand of someone they had trusted. Piper hadn't been there, but she'd imagined it a hundred million times. They still felt their failure to protect their child, their fierce and determined daughter, and it had gotten to the point where they were at risk of losing both Kate and Wyatt if they didn't do something.

This had to be done.

"Okay," Leo agreed simply. "Okay. We'll do this."

Mirielle Victoria Halliwell was utterly perfect. She was seven pounds exactly, a little below the average weight, but the doctors weren't concerned about that.

She'd been born in the hospital at eight-thirty-three a.m on the 8th of July, 2027, after a seventeen-hour labour, and come out with ten dainty fingers and ten tiny toes, wide newborn-blue eyes framed by long black lashes, with a full head of dark hair, and skin mid-way between Nico's olive and Kate's pale complexions.

Wyatt was head-over-heels in love with the moment he laid eyes on her. A week later and he still couldn't get enough of her little Cupid's bow lips and heart-shaped face and the little bubbles that came out of her mouth and the strength in her little hands when she wrapped a tiny hand around his finger (she was so small, she couldn't fully close her hand around it). He couldn't get enough of anything she did. Kate had laughingly accused him of trying to steal her child, he was around to see her so often. Not that she wasn't just as amazed of everything Miri did or move she made.

They would be having the Wiccaning in the elves' sacred grove. Apparently the rebels had duked it out over who would have the honour of hosting the event. The pretty meadow was somehow fitting the three hundred and fifty-something people of all races and moralities, including the Halliwells.

Since Phoebe's vision, the family had been trying their very best to make up for the mistakes. Wyatt knew things weren't back to normal yet, he wasn't sure if they ever would be, honestly. Kate had told him bits and pieces of the way she'd been treated while posing as the Charmed Ones' whitelighter, and he struggled to picture his parents acting like that. He'd lost something with those stories. Faith, or innocence, maybe. Either way, he didn't trust that his parents did the right thing all the time anymore, especially after hearing how Leo had attacked Kate with a sword, of all things.

It was no wonder they'd always said to be polite and welcoming to anyone who said they were here to help unless that person attacked them in some way, especially if they were from the future.

Either way, things were better than they were in those fraught months between Kate regaining her memories and Phoebe's vision. Enough that Kate had agreed to allow her parents to visit her in the hospital when she had Miri, and allowed the full Halliwell family to attend her daughter's Wiccaning. The rebels weren't even constantly on guard around Wyatt anymore, though he still had to be careful not to startle them into a flashback.

"Everyone, please be silent!" Sandra, the rebel Elder, called. She'd be conducting the Wiccaning. "We will now begin. General, Colonel, please bring forth the child."

Wyatt pouted a bit as Kate removed his niece from his arms and made her way to the centre of the clearing. The rebels were grinning widely and craning their necks to catch a glimpse of their beloved General's firstborn child.

Sandra smiled softly and gently brushed a hand over Miri's tiny cheek, before Kate cleared her throat and began to speak, invoking the spirits of the family Matriarchs to allow them to bless the newest of the next generation of Warren witches.

"We call forth, through space and time,

Matriarchs of the Halliwell line,

Mothers, daughters, sisters, friends,

Our family spirit without end."

Indistinct spectres filled the clearing and Wyatt settled in to listen to Sandra begin to speak and wait for his turn to bless his little niece.

He saw his mother and sister exchange soft smiles as Piper and her sisters took their turn to bless Miri, and felt his smile widen.

No, things weren't the same, nor would they ever be.

But maybe they would be better.