Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed nor any of the characters you recongnize from the series.

Prologue: 2010

"Push, breath, push," Phoebe Halliwell instructed her sister in an encouraging voice, "OK Piper, one more big pu—"

Piper's yell of agony cut her off; suddenly a new noise filled the room – the first screams of a newborn child.

Phoebe did the necessities of taking care of a child before wrapping it in a small soft receiving blanket.

She cradled her newborn niece in her arms, preparing to pass her to her mother, "Piper, would you like to meet your daugh—"

Suddenly, Phoebe's hand grazed the baby's small flailing one and she froze – on the outside.

Inside she was suddenly ambushed with too many visions to absorb. She was overwhelmed with image after image; all of them were different, different attacks, different battles, and different demons but there was always one thing that was the same: the little girl she was holding.

She was always a different age. Sometimes no older than the one she was now, other times she appeared to almost be a teenager, but never older than that. The one thing that never changed though was the ending. They all ended the same; they ended with the little girl's death.

"Phoebe!" Pipers horrified yells pulled her out of the visions, "Phoebe!"

Paige slowly leaned over took the girl from Phoebe and gave her to Piper, who after her sister's out burst held the little girl tighter than necessary, "What did you see?"

Phoebe shook her head. She couldn't tell them even if she wanted to; Phoebe had no way of making sense of what she saw. All she knew it was horrible, and that she wouldn't tell Piper even if she knows how to articulate it.

"I, ah—" Phoebe started trying to find a way to answer that question; to say something that didn't sound as horrible as what she had seen.

"Your sister saw the future as it stands now," the Angel of Destiny, the one that had told Piper of Leo's fate and had taken him, said appearing in a glittering swarm, "That child you are holding has been prophesied to be more powerful than the twice-blessed child but more vulnerable than a mere-mortal. Everyday demons will come for her. You will try to protect her; sometimes you will be successful, but one day – one not fully decided by the fates yet – it will become too much and you will fail. As it stands, she will be dead before her thirteenth birthday."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked looking wildly between the Angel, her husband and Phoebe, "Will somebody please tell me what she is talking about! What is happening?"

The Angel just stood there solemnly, "I have already told you more than I should."

And saying not another word, the Angel of Destiny was gone.

With the Angel gone Piper turned her hysterical questions at the one person left who could deny what they have heard, "Phoebe! What is she talking about? Why did she say—?"

Phoebe couldn't speak; how could she tell her sister that her worst fears, that the Angel of Destiny spoke the truth? The angel's words had helped her understand what she had seen. Phoebe now knew the truth; the Angel spoke the truth. Nothing they could do would save the girl, at least not with their magic.

"Phoebe," Paige finally hissed, "say something."

Phoebe walked closer to her sister, "Honey… I-I- I'm so, so sorry."

"No, No," Piper shook her head tears flowing freely now, "that's not possible; your visions have been wrong before. We've changed them."

Leo walked closer to his wife and child, "but the Angel of Destiny isn't. We can't change what she says."

Piper refused to believe it, "but we have to! We can't just sit by and do nothing! We can't let our daughter die…" she paused and stroked the child's head, "Our daughter."

"And we're not going to," Paige said looking at Phoebe who caught her drift.

Piper looked between the two of them; her sorrow at this news on what was supposed to be the happiest of days blocking her observation, "but the Angel said…"

"That we can't protect her with magic," Phoebe said looking at the angelic baby. She knew that this plan would break Piper's heart. It would break everyone's but it was better than the alternative, "because magic is what has gotten her into it but…"

"But what?" Piper asked looking around her family for someone to let her in. This was her child, and her mothering instinct drove her to protect, no matter what, "Leo, what are we going to do?"

Leo looked closely at each of his sister-in-laws before he spoke.

"We protect her," Leo said slowly, letting the words sink in as he fully grasped what the plan was to be, "the only non-magical way we know how."

It had been years since Sister Agnes last saw the swirling blue-white lights, years since she was given the young baby that would grow up to be Paige Mathews, but she never forgot that day or those lights.

So she knew exactly what she was seeing when those lights reappeared before her now. She was fully aware what they were going to ask her to do.

There were four of them now, including the baby. She recognized the woman on the end, slightly distancing herself from the other three, as the young woman that first baby had grown into; she remembered the day she had come back to find her clearly, and she thought she recognized the other woman, who looked quite similar to the first, from that day as well.

"Look, I know this may seem strange, but I don't have time, neither am I in the mood for pleasantries so I'm just going to get straight to the point," the second woman, the one holding the child, said, barreling through it like a school presentations she would rather not be doing, "we are desperate, understand that we would be doing this under no other circumstances, and please make sure she is aware of it too. She is in grave danger that we can't protect her from in any other way. We are asking you to take her in, as we know you have done with a child before. Keep her for the day; if we are not back by this time tomorrow, please—" the woman's bravo, her shield, wavered a bit and you could see the heartbroken mother that laid underneath, but only for a moment, "please, find a her a good home; a happy home, a safe normal home."

Sister Agnes only hesitated a moment before nodding; she could not keep this family in agony any longer; she could feel their desperation, and she knew these angels were sent her by God for her to help.

"Of course," she nodded.

She gave her a brief smile before looking down sadly at the small child.

Sister Agnes turned away from the family so they could say their good-byes in private.

Sister Agnes looked down at the small child in her arms. She had a little angelic face; it was hard to believe anyone would wish to harm such a thing. She looked like her mother, Sister Agnes could see that, but her eyes were unique; something that were all her own. Their warm brown colour would draw anyone in. They were wide and blinking. Her eyes were so innocent no one could expect this little girl of doing any wrong.

"Wait," she said stopping the family from leaving, "does she have a name?"

The woman turned back a fond smile on her face, "Melinda. Her name is Melinda."

By the end of the next day the news was out.

The paper read 'Young child gone before they were really here. Melinda Halliwell, niece of four own 'ask Phoebe' past on in a terrible accident.'

As far as the world was concerned Melinda Halliwell was dead; Melinda Gladstone, however, was just about to start her life.