So, this is a new fic that I'm writing with Blissful Lyss Turner 72-my muse. So it takes place in thebeginning of the5th season. Hope you all enjoy.

As always, I own nothing

The Surrogate-chapter 1

"Good morning," Pheobe Halliwell greeted her older sister though it was clear that the woman standing before her was definitely not in one of her better moods.

It had only been a few weeks since they learned of her pregnancy and it seemed that since then, Piper had been very agitated and miserable.

"How's my little niece?" Pheobe asked, trying her best to keep up a strong front, to try and make an effort to move on.

She was happy for her sister. She truly was. She knew how much both her sister and Leo had wanted a child, but since the loss of her own little one, she realized just how much she had wanted one as well. The fact that her son's death and her niece's discovered existence were so close together only deepened the pain and made it impossible for her to mourn. What was the point in mourning over the death of evil when the next generation of good magic would be welcomed to the world in the next eight months?

"Oh, she's fine. It's mommy who's stuck with all the symptoms and tricks that she just finds so funny," Piper explained, a tired look on her face.

"What do you mean?" Pheobe asked, but just as she said it, they became apparent as she watched her sister burp up bubbles that seemed to flame out. "What the hell was that?"

"One of the wonderful tricks I was telling you about," the older woman said as she sat down at the kitchen table.

"That doesn't sound right, Piper. What other things has she been doing?" Pheobe asked, taking a seat by her sister.

"Along with the whole nausea thing and soreness, she's started taking over my dreams," Piper answered as another burp of flames escaped her lips.

"Is that normal? What does Leo say?" Pheobe asked, worried.

"I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him. He's always so freakin' busy," she whined and as she did so, Leo appeared before them.

Unfortunately it wasn't orbs that surrounded him as he stood before them, but the ending effects that could only be one thing, a shimmer. Leo had shimmered into the manor.

Pheobe's eyes began to widen as she looked at him, and the look of confusion evident on his face made her certain that he had no idea what had happened.

"How did I get here?" he asked both girls. "I was helping a charge."

"I have no idea. I was talking to Pheobe about the baby and then I thought about you and I felt this weird sensation," Piper explained.

"I think it was her," Pheobe added pointing to her sister's stomach. "Leo, something's wrong. Burping up flames, summoning-she shouldn't be able to do that. It sounds demonic."

"My baby's not demonic." Piper instinctively responded, horrified that her baby sister would even say those words. "I'm not the one that slept with a demon."

"What does it sound like to you, Piper?" she asked, trying not to let the last comment hurt her. "Leo, please go to the Elders. Ask them what they know about your child."

"I will," he answered, before placing a kiss on his wife's lips. "Everything will be fine, I promise."

Orbing out, he left Piper and Pheobe to anxiously await his return and the answers that would follow.

Pheobe hadn't meant to scare her sister, but she knew that something wasn't right with her little niece. She knew the pain of losing a baby, and she hoped that it was all in her head, that the child would be fine, that this was all part of having a Charmed baby, but in her heart she knew that it wasn't just that.

"Piper, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," Pheobe started, but it didn't matter. Piper had already left the room, and knowing that her sister would want to be alone, she didn't follow her.

She threw herself in a chair and seeing that she was alone for the moment, let the tears come.

Her head in her hands, she couldn't help but think about how everything had gone wrong. She had been happy. For a little while things had been perfect. She was married to the man she loved and they were having a baby. Of course their happiness had been ruined by evil yet again and he had died along with their child. How could her sisters expect her to forget about them so fast?

Looking up, she saw a kleenex being held out for her.

"Cole, what are you doing here?" she asked as she looked into the eyes of her soul mate. "You shouldn't be here. You're supposed to be dead."

"I need to talk to you," he pleaded.

"No, Cole. You need to leave," she forced herself to say.

"Please. It's about our son," he continued to beg. "You can hate me all you want, but please let me talk."

"There's nothing to talk about. He's gone. There's no point in bringing it up now," she told him, her eyes desperately pleading with him to stop the conversation.

"He's not," Cole started. "I had to wait until it was safe and it is now. He would have died that day in the Underworld, but I couldn't let that happen. He is the only good thing we have done together and I wasn't going to let her destroy him."

"Cole, what are you talking about? I'm not pregnant anymore. He's dead," she said, not letting herself believe what he was saying.

"Please just listen to me. He's not dead. Our son is alive. I was watching that day when the Seer took him from you, and I knew that he would be destroyed when you vanquished her, so I transferred him to the only place I knew he would be safe. They would have killed you if they knew that you were carrying him, but if they thought he was dead, both you and him would be safe," Cole explained, sitting down beside her. "Piper and Leo had been trying for a baby so it wouldn't at all seem weird for Piper to show up pregnant right after our son had been lost. He would be safe with them for at least a little while, days, a month at the most. It would give me enough time to kill anyone wanting to do him any harm, but now I know that it's safe. He can be returned to us."

She just sat there, looking at him, unable to grasp the words coming out of his mouth. It wasn't possible. Piper was pregnant with a daughter, Melinda, their miracle child.

"Piper was his last chance. She was the only other person to eat the chocolate the Source gave you, which would enable her to carry him, to keep her body from rejecting his demonic blood. I know that it was wrong, giving them false hope, letting them think they were getting their child, but this was the only way he could have survived. I don't want to hurt Piper but he is our child, not hers," Cole finished.

"So Piper is carrying our child? How are we supposed to tell her that? I can't tell her that she's not getting Melinda," Pheobe asked, afraid of causing more pain.

"So you want to sit back and watch her and Leo raise him? Hear him call them mom and dad?" he asked, not wanting to be too harsh.

She thought about his words and began to think about what would happen if he was right. The thought of watching as her sister raised her child, being only the 'aunt' in her son's life, was too painful to imagine. She had to at least think of it as a possibility before completely ignoring what Cole was saying.

"Are you certain that it's ours?" she looked into his eyes, searching for anything that would lead her to believe that he was lying, but found nothing but hope, love. "What do we do?"

"We have to tell them," he said with a sigh. "Hopefully, they'll realize that it's the right thing to do to and agree to transfer him back to you."

"How would we do that?" Pheobe asked him, uncertain of what this would involve.

"A simple spell has to be spoken by both you and Piper for him to be returned to you," Cole explained to her.

"And if she doesn't agree?" the look on his face softened as she asked this.

Hope ya liked the chapter. Please review.