CHARMED

"What Makes a Daddy?"

by shel

© october 2005

disclaimer: the charmed ones, cole, and leo, and the rest of the cast of characters we've come to know and love, belong to spelling television, inc. and possible other copyright holders. i intended no true infringement on their copyrights; i only wanted to borrow these marvelous characters for a short time in my own scenarios and hopefully return them no worse for wear; the only things i've gained from this story are the satisfaction and pleasure of having written it and in knowing that others may have enjoyed it too…

rating: pg-13

summary: phoebe's wedding to dex may have been more bewitched than she thought…

timeline: begins immediately after the end of season 8's 'rewitched'…

archive: please don't without expressed permission…

notes: there is minor reference to s8's 'run, piper, run' and s7's 'seven year witch'…please let me know if you enjoyed my tale and why and, if not, why not…and, please, don't bother wasting your time or mine by sending any flames…

Part One

Phoebe sat on the floor with Dex's head in her lap wishing she'd known a better way to tell him that she and Julie, the woman he'd married, were one and the same. She glanced at the clock in his studio and began to worry. He'd been out for more than a few minutes but she remained as she was and simply continued caressing his cheek.

He came to with a start and practically leaped up from her arms. Despite the dizziness, he held out his hands warding her off as he lurched to a seat across the room and dropped into it, elbows on his knees, head hung down.

Hurt, Phoebe stayed in her spot on the floor and asked, "Should I go?"

He slowly lifted his head and looked in her direction. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am," she quietly replied with confusion. Had he hit his head when he fainted? Did he have amnesia?

"No I don't," he argued. "I never met you before you died. See," he said as he stood and stalked back across the room and towered over her, "I thought I knew Julie Bennett. Hell, I ended up marrying her, but you, Phoebe Halliwell, are suddenly alive and well and now telling me Julie doesn't even exist!"

"Of course she exists, she's me!" Phoebe exclaimed as she scrambled to her feet. She tried to reach for him and was stung by his slapping away of her hands. "Dex, please, let me explain."

"What's to explain?" he snapped. "You're not even human, why should I expect you to act like one?"

Tears filled her eyes, "That's not fair. You don't know --"

"You?" he interrupted. "You're right, I sure as hell don't and I don't want to either." He spun from her and demanded, "Leave me alone."

But Phoebe grabbed his arm and desperately said, "Not until I've told you everything. Once I do, I'll leave if that's what you still want. Just…please, hear me out."

He stood stiff, his back still to her, but acquiesced, "Make it fast."

Her mind raced as she wondered how to compress a complicated eight years into a simple statement that he would understand. She took a deep breath and found herself saying, "I'm a witch, Dex."

"That and its rhyme," he snorted to himself without turning around.

Telling herself he was upset and didn't mean it, Phoebe plunged into her explanation, "Eight years ago, my sisters and I discovered we had powers, magical powers. We were witches like our mother and grandmother before us. We were, are, the Charmed Ones, the most powerful witches of our line and have used our powers to the best of our abilities to fight evil."

Dex finally turned to her in disbelief, "You've got powers and you fight evil? What, like some kind of superhero?"

"I suppose we are, in a way," she shrugged. "Look, you've seen me as Julie but that's just a small part of what I can do. I --"

"Can leap tall buildings in a single bound?"

"You're not even trying!" she cried. "You want to make rude remarks and hate me, fine, go ahead, but at least give me the courtesy of finishing first."

His mouth dropped open but he didn't speak. Instead, he waved his hand and indicated that she should continue.

She was still simmering and turned from him, hoping she would calm down before she spoke. She didn't want to lash out at him when she was the one who'd kept the secret and fooled him. "There is evil in this world, Dex. True evil. Evil you couldn't even possibly imagine. And I've seen it. I've lived it. I've lost my mother and my sister to it. But my sisters and I still fought for our innocents. We still fought for the greater good. But you can't do that without being changed. The losses start to weigh on us even greater than the successes and the sacrifices become too great. And we were tired. Last year, Zankou made it more personal than the Source ever did and it was the final straw. Killing ourselves was the only way we thought we could defeat him and, at the same time, free ourselves from the burden of being Charmed. But we didn't have time to think it all the way through. All we wanted was to escape and be normal, at least that's what we thought…"

Dex hadn't completely followed everything and remained quiet when Phoebe's voice trailed off. Looking at her from behind, he was struck by the notion of how small she seemed and how sad. And despite the fact that he still didn't understand her deception, he somehow knew she was telling the truth and had never meant to hurt him. He slowly approached and finally placed his hands on her shoulders. He felt her tense and, in a softer tone, asked her, "Why involve me? Was it just some stunt in your freedom of being normal?"

She shook her head but didn't speak. She wasn't sure how much more to confess. Did he really need to know about her premonition of marrying him? Would telling him make him understand or would it only make matters worse? "Meeting you was completely unexpected," she honestly told him as she finally turned around to face him. "But there was a connection and I wanted more. I thought you felt the same way."

"I did," he admitted, "but I told you before, I never met you, Phoebe, I mean. You were someone I admired and was sorry I didn't know but that's all. Everything I felt, the attraction, the…everything, it was all for Julie"

"Phoebe is Julie," Phoebe shrugged before she stepped away. "It's just that Julie isn't Phoebe."

"Oh, sure, that clears it up."

"It became so hard," she said as she hugged herself and wandered around the studio glancing at his sculptures. "The more I had to be Julie, the more I missed being Phoebe. I was Julie. It was me speaking and feeling. But when I was Julie I wasn't being completely true to myself, to Phoebe, and I realized that it wasn't enough. I needed to be Phoebe again. Both my sisters discovered the same thing about their new lives and, thanks to Agent Murphy, we're now free to be ourselves again." She turned back to him, "I'm sorry that doesn't make much sense to you and I'm sorry I hurt you and I know it's a lot to absorb so I'll go now. Maybe in a couple of days, when you're ready, we can talk again."

Dex watched her grab her bag and go to the door and did nothing to stop her. Until she opened it and glanced back at him and he found himself asking, "Was it real? The wedding, wanting to stay married, was any of it real?"

She nodded slowly and managed to whisper, "Yes. I never lied to you about that. I never lied to you about anything other than my name."

"And your powers," he reminded her.

"I told you I was psychic," she quietly said. "I knew you wouldn't take me seriously but I did tell you the truth."

"You're psychic," he scoffed. But when he saw her serious expression hadn't changed he realized she wasn't kidding. "You really saw that earthquake coming, the damage to my work? You can really see the future?"

Phoebe barely looked at him as she replied simply, "It's one of my powers."

"It's just that," he nervously twitched, "if magic was involved that day…Jul--Phoebe, I can remember everything before I came to pick you up and everything from the moment I brought you home. But I can't remember a damn thing about that afternoon."

"Neither can I," she warily admitted.

"And you still believe it happened for a reason." It wasn't so much a question as a statement of fact, one he wasn't sure he yet completely understood. "Are you sure you didn't have me under some magic spell?"

Her eyes widened in shock, "I would never do anything like that."

"Then why, after everything you've told me, why does it still feel like magic was involved that day?" he questioned. "Why does it feel like I was controlled and did something I never would have done on my own?"

"Does it matter?" she whispered as she realized he needed to know about the spell and would probably not react well.

His gaze narrowed on her and he knew he'd been right. "I was under a spell, wasn't I?"

She refused to give into her impulse to look away as she quietly confessed, "Billie was only trying to help me. She didn't know what she was doing and you have to believe that I had no idea until after we came back to the house already married."

Dex wasn't sure he could even breathe. "We were under a spell? Magic made us get married?"

"It wasn't all --"

But Dex kept going, "And that night? That night after we talked and you wanted to stay married, our wedding night, was that another one of this Billie's ways of helping you?"

"I don't understand," she shook her head, "what happened that night?"

He strode towards her and a part of him felt badly when she seemed to shrink back from him. He didn't mean to scare her but, at the moment, she was absolutely infuriating him and he had to make a conscious effort not to trap her between himself and the door. "You mean to tell me you didn't feel strange that night? You didn't have any visions?" He was surprised by her confused reaction. It seemed so genuine. "I need the truth, Phoebe. No more lies and deception."

"That night was wonderful," she hesitantly told him, unsure of whether her answer would satisfy him or not. "It was --"

"Then why did I have all these strange images in my head when we went to bed that night, images of you, not Julie?" he interrupted in disbelief. Magic had to have played another part in what happened. "Why did I feel like it wasn't even me being with you?"

"I don't understand," she uttered in concern. Could Billie's spell have had longer lasting effects than they first thought? "What do you mean you saw me as anything other than Julie?" Maybe the glamouring effect didn't hold during those extremely intimate moments, maybe because of what the night represented. "Why didn't you say something before?"

He stepped back from her when she stepped closer. "I don't know," he shook his head, "the whole day was so confusing and as confusing as it was that night, I couldn't help but feel that it was so…so right which, of course, only made it more confusing. And you didn't seem to feel that anything was wrong so I chalked it up to…Hell, I don't know…I don't know what I'm saying anymore…"

And all Phoebe could do was apologize again, "I never meant to hurt you, Dex, and I'll give you as much time as you need to work this out. But I want you to know, and believe, that when I first saw you, I never dreamed I'd end up being married to you but I care about you and I'm hoping you'll still give me, us, a chance." She impulsively kissed his cheek, "You know how to find me when you're ready."

888888888888888888888888888888