"The Voice"
by goldenpuppies at heart
disclaimer: The Charmed ones and the rest of the cast of characters we've come to know and love belong to Aaron Spelling and possibly other copyright holders. I don't own them. Please don't sue. I only borrowed the characters for the story.
rating: pg-13
summary: Phoebe freaks out when she hears Cole's voice in the wind...
timeline: Set directly after Phoebe reads Cole's letter in Womb Raider.
archive: please don't without expressed permission.
notes: My sister and I were talking one night, and this idea just popped into my head.
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1I sit on my bed, preparing to read Cole's letter. I'm hoping that if I concentrate hard enough, I'll be able to imagine him reading the letter out loud. I take a deep breath, and begin to read the letter.
"If I'm dead right now, I know it was at your hand. No one else in heaven or hell had power over me. Please don't cry, I was dead before I met you, I was born the day you loved me, and my love for you will keep me alive, forever."
I lay down on my bed, attempting to steady myself. The letter was even more proof that he loved me. Even more proof that I vanquished the man I love. I feel a breeze coming from my window.
"Help me." The quiet voice comes from the window, and I sit up to look to see if I'm imagining it. "Phoebe." The voice sounds so desperate and broken.
"Cole?" I half whisper. But I get no answer. The breeze continues to enter my room, but Cole's voice is no longer carried with it. One of the sobs I was holding in escapes from my throat, and the tears begin to flow. I struggle to get my legs from out of underneath me, and I stumble off of my bed and out of my room, down the hall, and into Piper's room. I throw open the door, and Piper turns to face me.
"Phoebe, what's wrong?" Piper says as she approaches me and pulls me into a hug. I sag into her arms, burying my face in the crook of her neck. She lightly rocks me back and forth, much like she did when I was little. I feel her begin to stroke my hair, and I sob again. "Honey, what happened?"
"Nothing." I mumble from somewhere inside her neck. She pulls me back from her comforting embrace, and gives me her 'I know you're lying and I see right through it' look.
More tears flow down my face, and all I can manage to say is, "I heard Cole," before I sink back into her arms and rest my head on her shoulder.
My eyes feel heavy from crying, and Piper notices that I'm closing them longer every time I blink. She gently leads me over to her bed, and as she sits down, I sit in her lap. I know that she's being as patient as she can, but that she wants to know what happened. I climb out of her lap, and instead rest my head there. She strokes my hair, and then next thing I know I'm blurting things out.
"I read Cole's letter, and then I was lying on my bed and there was a breeze from outside because my window was open, and then I heard it..." I sit up and look at Piper's face. "I heard Cole's voice. He sounded so quiet and desperate and sad. First he said "Help me." and I sat up on my bed to see if my mind was playing tricks on me, and he said my name in a more desperate voice...Piper, I thought he was gone. Why could I hear his voice? Isn't he dead?" I manage to get all of that out between sobs and sniffing. I look downward to her bed, and a stray tear hits the sheet, turning her light blue sheets darker. Instead of replying, she simply brings me into another hug. "Piper, can I just stay here with you tonight?" I mumble.
"Will it make you feel better?" I give her a small nod of my head, but I can obviously tell that she's hesitating, and is going to say no. She lifts my head up so I can see her face, and looks me straight in the eye. "Honey, of course you can." I give her a small smile before she helps me up and walks me into my bedroom to get into pajamas. "Just come in when you're ready, ok?" I nod my head again, too tired to answer her with words.
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Bleary eyed and almost ready to collapse, I emerge back into the bedroom to find Piper sitting on the bed brushing her hair. I walk over to the bed, and Piper gets up and motions for me to lie down and go to sleep. "What about the lights?" I mumble incoherently. Piper just smiles down at me and walks over to the bathroom and turns off that light.
"I'll handle them. You just get some sleep, ok?" Piper comes back over to the bed and untucks the blankets. I stretch out on the mattress, and Piper pulls at the blanket and covers me. I watch as she quickly walks out into the hall. I hear a murmur coming from the hallway, and I know that she's either filling Paige in on what's going on, or asking her to do something. The murmuring stops, and a couple seconds later, Piper re-enters the room and turns off the lights. I feel her climb onto the bed and I move closer to her. I drift off to sleep with a feeling of security, and possibly comfort in the fact that I have such a caring sister.
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I'm awoken by the bed shifting, and I immediately know that Piper has gotten off of the bed. 'Don't sit up. She thinks you're asleep...' The thought runs through my head, and I decide to follow it and I remain with my eyes closed. I can tell that Piper is still standing in the room, so I know that someone is in there with her.
"What's going on?" I hear Leo whisper. His voice is laced with concern.
"Phoebe felt that she needed to spend the night." Piper whispers back.
"What happened?" I begin to wonder why I didn't think of Leo before. I guess it's lucky he wasn't here tonight.
"After she read Cole's letter, she thought she heard his voice in the wind..." Piper explains to him, still attempting to keep her voice nowhere above a whisper. "She was so upset, and she wanted to stay so badly, so I said she could..." Piper trails off, and I'm almost sure she's guilty about letting me stay without asking Leo.
"Don't worry about it, Piper. She's had a hard time with the fact that Cole is gone. She needs your support right now." I open one eye, and see Leo touching Piper's hand. Piper gives him a small smile, and turns back to look at me. I snap my eye shut, praying she didn't notice.
"Do you want me to wake her or scoot her over or something?" Piper asks. I can imagine Leo smiling at my sister, and I know that he probably is going to say no anyway.
"That's okay; I'll just head downstairs and sleep on the couch. Or go back up there." I know that Piper would have turned around by now, so I open my eye again. Leo and Piper kiss, and Leo orbs out. I close my eyes as Piper turns back around. I feel the bed weigh down again, and I know that Piper's back in bed. Relieved that Piper didn't make me leave, I allow myself to drift off to sleep, but not before looking around the room to make sure that nobody else is in the room except for me and Piper.
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The bright morning sun shines in on my face, and I throw my arm over my eyes. Knowing that Piper has already gone downstairs to make breakfast and whatever she does that early in the morning, I mumble something about just wanting to sleep for a week.
"No, Phoebe. You have to get up now! Your gonna be late for work." Surprised that anyone would bother coming in to wake me up, I open my eyes to find Paige towering over me looking pissed as all hell.
"What time is it?" I ask her as I swing my legs over the side of the bed and continue to rock them back and forth. Paige pulls me up and drags me into my room.
"It's almost 9:30, Phoebe. What's going on?" She turns to face me, and I suddenly find my bare feet very interesting.
"I-I just had trouble sleeping last night." I take a deep breath as I remember what happened the night before that caused the night to be so hard to get through.
"Honey, look, last night Piper told me about that..." Paige pulls me into a tight hug, and I stay there for a couple of minutes with her.
"Look, we should go downstairs and eat...Piper probably is done with breakfast by now..." I leave the question open handed, and the two of us walk down together.
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"Morning..." I say to Piper as I sit down at the table. She sets a plate of pancakes in front of me.
"How are you?" She sits down across from me and leans on her elbows.
"I'm...ok...I guess that last night was just my imagination...I'm over it. Cole is dead. We vanquished him. He's gone." I lie. Piper and Paige are oblivious to my lie. Every word that I said sinks into my mind, and I honestly know that it's not true. Somehow, he'll be back. I'm sure of it. I take another deep breath to steady my emotions, before excusing myself from the table with the excuse that I have to get to work. Piper gets up and gives me a quick hug, and Paige joins the hug. They walk me to the door, and I grab my coat. Turning back to face them, I tell them that I love them before walking out the door and shutting it behind me.
End...