Aurelia stood in the corner, her coffee brown eyes trained on the blonde as she stood in front of the Charmed Ones. Wyatt yelled for Piper, causing Aurelia to sigh and approach the blonde witch, "Billie. . . you know, you give me so much fucking trouble in the future. . ." She muttered, "This? This better fucking change it, or so help me, God--"

Paige grabbed her friend's shoulder, orbing her from the room. Aurelia spun to face the witch; they'd ended up in the foyer, while everyone else followed Piper into the next room over. "Ok, that's it, what the hell happened to you?!" The brunette hissed, causing the younger of the two to scoff.

"You wanna know what happened?" She asked, her voice louder than she'd anticipated. The manor went silent as everyone listened intently to the interaction. "Fine, Paige, let's do a god damn recap on what the hell happened."

The Halliwell family slowly crept toward the scene, the anger and pain in the whitelighter's voice growing more and more evident with each syllable.

"First, I was dumped into foster care. Secondly, I was abused, sexually, verbally, physically, and mentally. Third, I was forced away from my best friend for almost eight years. Four, when I come back, I get locked in the basement by some spider-possessed Chris. Fifth, you all lied to me about it until Chris had enough and actually told me the fucking truth. Sixth, my foster mom showed up to my work. Seventh, I got fucking murdered because I, oh, so, stupidly fell in love! And, finally, I haven't smoked in two god damn years!" She shouted, waving her arm angrily as she listed off everything that had lead to her emotionless state. "So, I'm so fucking sorry, that wanting to be there for the people I love, and letting my emotions get involved, has lead me to nothing but disaster!"

Paige stared at her, wide-eyed. She was speechless, having never witnessed that much anger radiate from her friend, before; she went to hug her, but the brunette only orbed away, behind the rest of the Halliwell family. She threw herself in a chair, angrily flipping her butterfly knife through her fingers as she mentally told herself to calm down; her breathing was heavy, quick, and her face was as red as Paige's lipstick.

She'd tuned out the family, memories echoing through her skull as she thought back to what her life was before all of this; the only thing that had truly made her happy, was Chris. . . and it was obvious to her, that he was infuriated by the fact that the woman he'd fallen in love with, the woman he'd watched die, was his little sister's whitelighter.

...

Penny, Coop, Wyatt, Chris, and Aurelia stayed in the manor as the sisters and Billie set off to vanquish the Triad. . . again. The brunette whitelighter leant against the stained glass window, her molten brown irises observing the world outside.

The ginger witch was pacing, Coop was impatiently bouncing his leg, Wyatt was standing with his head pressed against the wall and his eyes closed, and Chris was contemplating speaking to the brunette; he'd been thinking of it since he saw her the night before.

"Stop staring, Shaggy." She droned, "You look like a creep."

Chris rolled his eyes, approaching her, and leaning his arms on both sides of her. "Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, his voice nearly breaking as she refused to meet his gaze.

Coop stood, "Because, she'd given up. Shielded her heart." He sighed, "In her mind, love is what got her killed. . . so why would she let it back into her life?"

Chris looked between his uncle and his former girlfriend, his eyebrows knitted together as he scanned her face for any trace of emotion. "So, what? You just, lost all feelings of love?"

"What? That's ridiculous," she scoffed, finally looking into his glowing jade green eyes since the sun rose. "I didn't lose anything, I just. . ."

"What?" He asked, leaning closer to her face. "You what? Blame me for your death? Or my parents? Or maybe even Wyatt?"

"Hey!" The blond exclaimed, his eyes darting open as he pointed at his little brother. "Don't drag me into this!"

"I blame no one but myself," she stated, her tone cold, with the slightest trace of pain. Only he would be able to hear it, his gaze softening as she continued. "I have no regrets when it comes to love, Chris. No regrets when it comes to us, or what I did to save you. . . I have shame; shame caused by how naïve I'd allowed myself to be. I promised myself that it would never happen again. Yet," she took a deep breath, "here we are: staring at each other like we did before you locked me in a basement."

...

"So," Paige muttered, her eyes locked onto her childhood friend's, "I guess this is it. . . Look, Lia, I'm so sorry. For everything."

The brunette pulled Paige into a hug, "It's okay. I'm stronger, now. And, hey," she wiped a tear from her friend's cheek, "don't think of this as goodbye. I'll see you again, in about, twenty years."

"But that's so far!" The witch whined.

"I'll visit!"

The women laughed, before Paige's gaze locked onto a brunette behind the whitelighter. "Well, you better get over there. . . someone's waiting for you." She smiled, wiggling her eyebrows; Aurelia slapped her friend's shoulder lightly, turning away and facing the man whom she dreaded to speak to again.

The two approached one another, small smiles on their lips as they connected their hands. She looked into his jade green eyes, smiling as he spoke, "You know, I meant it when I said forever and always."

"And I meant it when I said always and forever. . ." She chimed, standing on her tiptoes and placing a soft kiss against his lips. Wyatt cheered his little brother on, causing both brunette's to flip him off. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Mel." She whispered, looking back into his eyes as her feet landed back onto the ground.

"I understand, now, why you didn't. . . but she's still gonna get an earful."

"Trust me, I know, because then I'm gonna get one from her." She chuckled, before looking back to the Halliwell sisters, "Let's go home."

"Let's."