Laura Halliwell

Laura Patricia Halliwell, M.D., is a fictional character from the story Something to Be posted on fanfiction.net by Sammy41. She is best known as the eldest of the new Power of Three and the first born of Phoebe Halliwell and her husband Coop.

Childhood & Early Life
Born October 31, 2006, Laura Patricia Halliwell is the oldest daughter of Phoebe Halliwell and Cooper Valentine. Her birth is supposed to take place roughly a year after the Ultimate Battle, though this is impossible with the timeline of Forever Charmed and the final season of the TV series. Regardless of logistics, Laura is born at San Francisco Memorial Hospital on Halloween, just two years after her cousin Chris' birth.

Laura is considered to be the daughter that her mother saw in her visions of the future. Just like the girl in Phoebe's premonitions, Laura also adopts the nickname of "Ladybug" during her early years. In her first few years, Laura is raised at Phoebe and Coop's appartment. She attended daycare and pre-school at Magic School before being admitted to public school like her cousins. Following the birth of her younger sister, Lila, the family moved to a house near the beach where they stayed for the rest of her childhood and adolescence.

After middle school, Laura attended Golden Gate High School with her cousins Wyatt and Chris, who were in their senior and junior year respectively when she arrived. Laura is known to be the more studious of her sisters, and during high school she was very scholastically involved. Unlike her sister and cousins, she was not very social at school and spent most of her time upkeeping her studies. She was a member of the math team, vice president of the National Honors Society, and won the science bowl two years straight. While she was by no means categorized with the nerds, Laura kept to herself and maintained only a handful of close friends, avoiding most large social gatherings of her peers.

When Laura was 15 years old, her father and mother decided to seperate. While Laura was disheartened by the event, she harbored resentment towards her father who was often gone. She saw the stress his lack of commitment put on her mother and therefore during the seperation turned a cold shoulder toward Coop. This created a rift between her and her sister Lila, who was very close with Coop and believed that Laura was being unfair in her opinons of their father.

Laura graduated from Golden Gate High School with honors when she was 18. In the weeks leading up to her graduation, Coop asked Laura to meet with him. It was then that he offered her his Cupid's ring and told her he wanted her to carry on the family tradition. Laura refused him, returning his ring and firmly stating that she wished to have nothing to do with the magical world and wanted to pursue a career as a doctor. Following high school Laura was accepted at John Hopkins University where she enrolled in medical school.

Education & Career Path
Laura completed her pre-med and graduate courses at John Hopkins University. In the beginning, the only troubles she had stemmed from her family conviniently barging (beaming) in whenever they pleased, even while she was half-way across the country. Laura found that she enjoyed Maryland more than she expected because demons left her alone and magic was at a minimum.

After an accelerated six year program of study at John Hopkins, Laura graduated from medical school at age 24. She begins her residency in Maryland but put in for transfer to the San Francisco Memorial Hospital. Her first two years are hectic, requiring long, odd, plentiful hours on call. By the time she is 26, however, at the beginning of Something to Be, she is already in the middle of her second year of residency and has a more agreeable schedule.

Laura's occpuation as a doctor has already appeared to be an advantage to her duties as a witch. In the episode "Bloodline" Laura's position in the ER allows her plenty of access and knowledge about the spreading demonic virus. When Melinda is stabbed and nearly dies, Laura is also at San Francisco Memorial Hospital when she is taken in, and able to help save her in the emergency room ("Good Times Gonna Come").

Powers
As Phoebe and Coop's first daughter, it comes as little surprise that Laura is the most powerful of her siblings. She was born with the powers of teleporation, temporal stasis, molecular combustion, and sensing. It is thought that Laura inherited teleportation and sensing from her father, who maintained the powers as a cupid. Temporal stasis and molecular combustion are obviously wiccan in origin and can be assumed to be inherited from the Halliwells.

The first power Laura showed the ability to use was that of teleporting. She does this in the same manor as Coop; in a pink beam. During her infancy Phoebe claimed this was a problem and admitted in the first episode of Something to Be that she sometimes used potions on Laura and her sister Lila to temporarily keep them from teleporting away when they were young, though neither daughter remembers.

Laura showed the ability to sense when she was in her preschool years. There is a slight variation of her father or whitelighter powers. While she can sense where people are, she can also sense danger or demons if they are nearby. Sometimes this serves as precognition, for she can sense that something bad is about to happen before it actually does. When she was young, she would often warn her mother of "a bad feeling" and therefore help the sisters at times from being blindsided.

Like her cousin, Melinda, Laura began using the power of temporal stasis at an early age. She began freezing people and objects when she was a toddler and at times seemed to be able to use the ability without using her hands. This is an advancement that Piper Halliwell, her aunt who wielded the same power never had. While Piper used her hands whenever she needed to aim a freeze or explosion, Laura displayed the capability of not needing the aid of hands.

When she was seventeen, Laura's powers evolved further, and she inherited the power of molecular combustion. While the additional force made her more powerful, she was not fond of having it. In order to gain better control, she spent nearly the entire summer going into her senior year with her aunt Piper, who helped her to understand and harnass the ability.

Binding of Powers
While at John Hopkins for medical school, Laura was not only under a rigorous academic schedule but she was also put in medical situations and simulations inside the hospital. As expected, the environment was high stress and high stakes, and as a result, her powers often got in the way, causing more harm then good. In several cases she would unintentionally blow up machines or other medical supplies, disrupting the class but also putting patients in danger. One such instance nearly killed a patient she was trying to do CPR on in the emergency room.

At the age of 24, Laura returned home and requested that her powers be bound by her mother. While Phoebe insisted that she could teach her better control and that it was unnecessary to terminate her powers, Laura was stubborn in her decision. Claiming that she had respect for her daughter and her career, Phoebe agreed to bind Laura's powers.

Return of Powers & Charmed Status
Following the death of her aunt Paige, Laura's powers returned. Without anyone unbinding them through a spell or otherwise, all her abilities reappeared in the middle of a battle at the manor. Her aunt Piper re-bound them at Laura's request but they automatically came back only hours later.

It was then revealed that Laura's powers had become unbound because she and her sisters were the new Charmed Ones. With Paige's death, the Power of Three transferred over to the next set of sisters. While Laura is hesitant to accept her new destiny as a witch at first, she ultimately agrees to be a Charmed One. It is assumed that her status as a member of the Power of Three will even further advance her powers, though nothing of that sort has happened yet. The only difference now is that she and her sisters are under much more pressure from the demonic world and playing a more active role in protecting innocents.

Personality & Relationships with Family
It's worth noting that Laura's astrological sign is a scorpio; the same as her aunt Prue and her cousin Chris. Laura is fiercely independent and extremely capable. She has the ability to do anything she sets her mind to. While she can tend to be a little distant and short, she is in fact very caring and compassionate, especially when it comes to her family and her patients. With these attributes she is often seen as a parallel to both her aunts Prue and Piper. Though sometimes she seems to be nervous and unsure of herself, she is a natural leader and harbors great intelligence and strength. In contrast to her sisters and some of her cousins, she is very logical and thorough, often times able to see past emotions and construct a plan that aims to be more concise and effective.

Laura tends to like to have control over things. That could be part of the reason she has such a hard time accepting her destiny as a Charmed One and likes her career as a doctor. One is a choice and the other is not. Despite her stubborn nature and sometimes timid demeanor, she really does care about her family and loves them fiercely.

As far as relationships go, Laura has always had a hard relationship with her sister Lila. This started when they were young and their parents separated and only exemplified when Laura rejected her powers as a witch. Now that they are the new Power of Three, however, it seems they are becoming closer. Overall, Laura is very close with Wyatt, who she looks to as a mentor and older brother. Since becoming a Charmed One she often confers with Wyatt and he confides in her about being gay. He is arguably her best friend in the family.

She also gets along well with Sam and Melinda. She considers Joey her own younger brother and the two are especially bonded after he convinces her to be a Charmed One. She and Chris get along, but are sometimes too alike for their own good. They tend to act like feuding twins opposed to being cousins. Lastly, Laura's favorite aunt is Piper. The two are also extremely similar, not only in powers but in personality and this has made them very close.

Romantic Life
Little has been mentioned about Laura's romantic relationships prior to the start of Something to Be. At the time of her aunt Paige's death, however, she is dating Dr. James Clement. James and Laura have been together for over a year, but she made little mention of her family prior to Something to Be. He is unaware that she is a witch and Laura refuses to tell him, leading to difficulties in their relationship. In episode five, James tells Laura he is tired of being left in the dark and the two seperate.

Despite being seperated James and Laura encounter each other often at the hospital. She has a hard time getting over him and on Valentine's Day confesses that she misses him. James sends her a card that evening and says he feels the same way ("All My Secrets"). When Melinda is stabbed and rushed to the hospital, James operates and also conforts Laura during and after the chaos. The night he kisses her in the doctor's lounge, reigniting their relationship ("Good Times Gonna Come").

Side Notes

 * Laura's astrological sign is Scopio. Her cousin Chris and aunt Prue have the same birth sign. Also like her aunt Prue, Laura is the oldest of the Charmed Ones.
 * Laura has panic attacks when she is nervous, often resulting in her hyperventalating, sweating, and even puking.
 * Phoebe turned Laura's room into a potions room after she moved out.
 * Laura's first patient when she transferred to work as an Emergency Room resident at the San Francisco Memorial Hospital was a young boy named Hector. He died while on the operating table, after she reassured him he would be okay.
 * One of Laura's favorite places is the beach by the Golden Gate Bridge.