Hey there! I'm trying my hand at a little something here. I had been doing a Charmed Rewatch for the last couple of months, and going through my whole "In love with Cole" phase again. I'm still kinda mad at how the writers handled his whole storyline, he deserved so much better than that! But since there's nothing much I can do, I decided to write a little One-Shot!
This takes place around "Siren Song" in the beginning of season 5. Also, the title is something Darryl said to Cole, it made me think of LoVe (from Veronica Mars), so I had to do something about it too! ;) Hope you enjoy it!
"Careful Paige behind you!" Phoebe screamed to her sister just as the demon threw a fireball at her.
Paige orbed on the spot, the energy ball going right through her and shattering the grandfather clock for what was probably the hundredth time since they had learned they were witches; the damn thing seemed to attract demons and fireballs.
Alarmed by all the commotion, Piper came out of the kitchen her hands raised and tried freezing the demon. He stopped for a second, and then just cracked his neck and grinned at the three sisters.
"He doesn't freeze, Phoebe he doesn't freeze," the oldest sister yelled as Phoebe levitated and kicked him in the face.
The demon didn't even flinch and just blinked, disappearing instantly to behind where Paige was standing. When she sensed the demon's hand on her, the young woman tried to orb out, but the demon was faster, grabbing her and blinking before anyone else could say a word.
"Where did he come from?" Piper asked, brushing away the dirt from her jeans and looking at her sister with an interrogative look.
"Don't ask me, I have no idea," the other woman told her, turning around to climb the stairs up to the attic.
Grumbling, Piper followed her, calling for Leo as she went through the door leading to the attic, joining her sister who was already looking at the book.
"Demon got Paige," she simply said as her husband orbed in, looking alarmed.
"What kind of demon?" Leo asked, his frown furrowing with concern as he walked to the two other sisters.
"Him," Phoebe told the both of them, pointing at a drawing of the demon that had just attacked them.
"Kryceak, demonic being who steals powers from magical creatures, good or evil. He has the ability to suck all of their powers until there's nothing left, even riding his victim from their souls. Now that's new," Piper said, looking at the next page for a vanquishing spell but found nothing but a list of magical ingredients. "Great, just as if we had time for potion making," she groaned, looking at the list.
"They say here that to rid a powerful witch of her powers he'll need to perform a ritual. Apparently it's easier for demons and warlocks, only needs to infect them with his magic and wait for it to act," Phoebe continued reading as her sister made note of the ingredients.
"That's good, maybe we have some time. We're still missing three of four things here, I'll pick half of them up at the Wicca shop if you get the other ones from the grocery store," Piper told her sister before turning to her husband. "Leo can you sense her?" she asked, but he shook his head.
"He must've taken her to the underworld, I'll see if I can sense her down there," he answered, orbing as he finished his sentence.
Cole was still looking for the demon he had been chasing after for the last couple of days. He had attacked him a few days earlier, trying to steal his powers but getting away after he realized that Cole was way too strong for him.
Resting around the corner of some demonic underworld chamber, he could hear the demon blink in and then something hitting the ground hard. Taking his chances, he walked out of the dark and took in the scene before him.
Kryceak was getting the body of his next victim on the ritual table that was standing in the middle of the room. Horrified, Cole took in the red hair of the victim, realizing that it was Paige.
"Well, still trying to steal powers too big for yourself I see," Cole said, the demon turning around and throwing one of his black fireballs. "It will take more to stop me, you know that," the lawyer said, deflecting it with a flick of his hand.
Raising his arm, the man threw Kryceak flying across the room and into the wall on the opposite side. Not waiting for the other to get his senses back, Cole walked quickly towards Paige. He was gathering her in his arms when a fireball hit his side, making him groan with pain as he threw one too, missing the demon by an inch.
"I'll come back for you," Cole told him, still holding the young woman in his arms.
He was half faded away and though not aware of it when the black fireball hit him, the demon laughing deeply from the wall he was still resting against.
"We'll see about that," he muttered, getting up from the ground.
Cole reappeared in the living room of the Halliwell manor, slowly putting Paige down on the couch and turning around to see if anyone was home. There wasn't even a sound in the house, nothing apart from the sound of the wind against the windows.
He didn't really want the girls to know he had been the one to bring Paige home, knowing that Phoebe probably wouldn't like it. He had decided a few days ago that he wouldn't try and win his ex-wife over anymore, not wanting to get her into any trouble again. He just wanted to give her space, but that was before he ran into the demon who had kidnapped his sister. He couldn't have left Paige there to die, even if he had never really liked the youngest sister, not that she left him any chance to get to know her.
Sighing, he considered calling Piper and then changed his mind, getting up from the couch and ready to leave quickly.
"Leo? Leo!" he called, waiting for the usual lights that announced his ex-brother-in-law's arrival.
As soon as he spotted them, he went away, leaving the white-lighter to deal with Paige as he went back to the penthouse.
The shimmering left him weak and shaking, just as if it had taken all the magic he had inside him to do it, and he grabbed the small coffee table on his right, steadying himself as he glanced at the mirror. He looked like crap. His side was still bleeding from where the demon had hit him with the fireball, and he tried healing himself.
It didn't seem to work, and when Cole glanced down to the wound, he could see that it was still bleeding, seemingly unaffected by the use of his powers. Wondering what kind of magic it was he tried again, this time it didn't even work a little bit. Groaning, he tried to shimmer away to his bed, not trusting his legs to walk there.
Instead of disappearing, he simply flashed and reappeared exactly on the same spot. Trying again gave exactly the same result, and his knees gave under him, leaving him to fall on the floor unconscious.
Leo was healing Paige when the two other sisters came into the house, and he called for them from the living room.
"Leo where did you find her?" Piper asked as she kneeled close to her sister, making sure she was alright.
"I didn't, someone just called me here," the white lighter told her, still healing the wound the young woman had gotten on the side of her head.
Gasping, Paige finally woke up, holding her head.
"What happened?" she asked, falling back onto the couch, her eyes half closed from the bright light in the room.
"You don't know?" Leo asked, getting up from beside her and shooting a look at his wife.
"I remember someone hitting me on the head, and then it's blurry. I think someone brought me here but I have no idea who it was," she explained, rubbing the spot where the demon had hit her.
"Cole called me here," he told her, shooting a side glance at Phoebe who was sitting on the arm of the couch.
"Cole?" Paige asked, getting herself up on her elbow. "Why didn't he stay then? He wants Phoebe back, I mean saving her sister is pretty much the best way to do it," she continued as she looked at Phoebe.
"He knows I don't want him using his powers," Phoebe started explaining, running a hand through her hair. "He was backing off the last time I saw him, finally agreeing to try and move on," she said, rubbing her eyes.
"Well it doesn't matter who brought you here, we need to take care of this potion before he comes back and tries to steal all of our powers," Piper said as she extended a hand to Paige, asking her if she could stand.
Nodding, the red hair followed her to the kitchen, quickly joined by Phoebe and Leo.
The potion took almost an hour to brew, and then Piper carefully put it in small vials, giving one of them to everyone.
"Paige, do you think you can orb us back to where he took you?" Phoebe asked, storing the small vial in her pocket.
"Yeah I guess I can," her woman replied, extending a hand to her sisters and then concentrating on orbing to the right place.
As soon as they appeared in the cave, they were met by a fireball and they quickly jumped out of the way to avoid being burned.
"Piper can you try to blow him up?" Paige asked from behind the rock she was hiding.
"I can try," she agreed, motioning for the demon in front of her to blow up, but he just exploded and got back together.
Not wasting any time, Paige threw the small bottle she was holding in his hands, but he was quicker and simply made it explode in the air, laughing.
"Athamé," the young woman cried, orbing the ceremonial knife into his chest.
That didn't stop the demon from laughing and he pulled it off, the wound closing itself behind it. He then threw the dagger at the young witch who orbed into place, the weapon going right through her and hitting the wall.
Turning around, Paige saw the small droplets of blood boiling across the blade, dissolving the metal where it was touching it.
"He's got acidic blood," she screamed to her sisters who were still trying to make him drop his guard long enough to throw the potion.
"Cole," Phoebe whispered, the demon taking advantage of the second of distraction to throw a fireball at her, hitting her shoulder and making her fall to the ground, the glass bottle shattering.
Piper tried freezing him again to throw her potion, but the demon just bowed it's head and disappeared in a shimmer that looked way too much like Cole's one to be a coincidence. Phoebe stood there for a second, frozen.
"The demon must've gotten Cole's power when he rescued me," Paige said, saying out loud what Phoebe had been thinking. "We need more potion if we want to get rid of him," the young woman continued, taking a step forward to help Phoebe up.
"Maybe we should make sure he's not gone back to Cole's first," Piper told them both. "Orb Phoebe there and then we'll go and get some more potion."
Nodding, Paige grabbed her sisters' hands and orbed them all in the penthouse. It only took them a second to see the unconscious body of Cole lying on the ground, and Phoebe dropped her sister's hand to run to his side, shaking his arm.
"Cole?" She tried, hoping he'd open his eyes but when he didn't she turned back to her sisters, silently telling them to go get the potion, watching them orb out.
The blood was the first thing that Phoebe noticed when her sisters left. There was a lot of it, seeping through the right side of his shirt and staining the carpet he was lying on. It wasn't boiling anymore, it was just as red and normal as hers and she sighed.
Who was she kidding, she had wished him dead a few times in the last couple of weeks, but now that it was actually a real possibility, she couldn't stop her heart from pounding ridiculously fast.
His face looked so peaceful right now, not demonic at all, and all she could seem to think about were all the times she had smiled into his eyes as he held her close to him. He really was the love of her life, who was she kidding by saying that she didn't want him in her life, how could she even think about it?
Elise was right, the can of worm was opened, worms spilled everywhere and she couldn't close it back. He had been the love of her life, still was, and probably always would be. As much as she wanted it to be over, as much as she was scared for him to hurt her again, she couldn't stop herself from loving him.
It was the lack of noise in the penthouse that made her startle at first and she glanced around, seeing nothing. Turning back to Cole, her heart skipped a beat. There was a white light seeping away from his mouth, raising further up by the second and she opened her mouth, sound not coming out of it as the words of the book of Shadows came back into her mind.
…even riding his victim from their souls.
Could this be… Cole's soul? It looked so white, definitely not evil at all. After all wasn't it what he was trying to show her, that he wasn't evil anymore? Could it be that even with all his demonic powers, his love for her had kept him from going back to being evil?
The light was floating away softly and she couldn't do anything to stop it. She squeezed his hand stronger, wishing for her sisters to get the demon fast or it would be too late for the man lying in front of her.
Just as she thought it was over, the light stopped in its track, dropping back to his chest as quickly as it had left it, but he didn't start breathing again.
"Leo? Paige?" Phoebe screamed, eyes raised to the ceiling in hope that someone would hear her call and come save him.
A few seconds later the three of them appeared in front of her.
"It's done, we got him," Paige told her with a smile that dropped away when she took in her sister's look. "What is it?"
"You need to heal him, Leo, before it's too late," Phoebe pleaded, not letting go of the man's hand as she looked to her brother-in-law.
"Are you sure about this Phoebe?" Paige asked, raising an eyebrow. "Earlier you were asking me if I had made the potion to vanquish him and now you want Leo to heal him?"
"Yes, I'm sure," the young woman replied, her eyes still fixed in Leo's.
"I'm not sure I will be able to do it Phoebe, I can't heal demons," he told her, glancing sideways at her wife who nodded for him to at least try. "I can try," he finally agreed, kneeling near the unconscious man and running his hands over his wound.
As soon as he did it, white lite shot away from them and the flesh that had been burned by Kryceak slowly but surely went back to healthy, pink flesh. When it was all well, Leo looked up at Phoebe, a questioning look in his eyes.
"Did it work?" the woman asked, her eyes worried at the look she could see on the white-lighter's face.
"Yes it did, very well actually. Humanly well," he added, shooting a look at the man who was now breathing regularly.
Phoebe closed her eyes, relieved, only to open them back as Cole gasped, opening his eyes and trying to get up.
"No, do not try to move," Phoebe said, moving so that he could rest his head on her thigh as she looked at her sisters. "Thank you, I will see you back at the manor okay?" she told them, ignoring the look that Paige was giving her.
The three of them knew Phoebe well enough not to discuss it, and grabbing his wife's hand, Leo orbed out, quickly followed by Paige.
"What happened?" Cole asked, raising his eyes to look at her, not quite understanding why she was with him on the floor of his penthouse.
"A demon infected you when you got Paige from the underworld. Took you powers. Almost took your soul too actually," Phoebe explained, not able to resist running her fingers through his dark hair.
"I don't have my powers anymore," he said agreeing with her, trying to stand up on his elbows.
She helped him to sit up, still sitting on the floor herself as he examined his side where the fireball had hit him earlier. It looked brand new and he frowned.
"Leo," she simply said, answering his unspoken question.
"He could've healed you too," Cole told her as his eyes fell on her shoulder that was still raw from the fireball that had hit her earlier. "This looks like one of mine," he said, his voice shaking as he realized that it were his powers that had hurt her.
Phoebe couldn't deny it, knowing that the demon had attacked all of them with his powers before disappearing in the same way he did.
"You should probably go," Cole groaned as he tried to get up, refusing the hand she was holding out to help him.
"I'm not sure I want to," she whispered softly as he walked away, turning his back to her and reaching for the table to steady himself. "Being so close to losing you just made me realize… I don't know, Cole, I'm just…" she tried, not quite finding the words that described what she was feeling.
He turned around to look at her and she could see it in his eyes, the pain, the longing, the love. It had been there all along, she just didn't want to see how much he wanted her back, because she couldn't deal with how much she wanted him back too.
She still didn't know if she could trust him, but seeing how he had acted today made her believe that maybe he was really telling the truth when he said that he wasn't evil anymore, that he wanted to be good.
"I am tired of fighting what I feel about you Cole," she finally told him, looking at him with pleading eyes.
Those words made him think back to when Paige had casted the spell for him to feel how Phoebe really felt about him, and the memory of the love he had felt flowing through him at that moment brought back tears to his eyes, just like it had back then.
"I can't protect you now, I have no powers," he breathed out softly, the old fear of not being able to save her if anything happened coming back to the surface.
"Do you miss them? Your powers I mean?" she asked, ignoring the first half of what he had just said.
"No, I don't," he honestly told her, turning away to look out the window. "I had decided not to try and get you back, I don't need them anymore," he continued.
To that Phoebe laughed softly. "You know your powers always got in the way of that, it didn't help," she explained, still talking to his back. "You don't have to try anymore," she finished, her voice barely louder than a whisper, but he could still hear it.
"What do you mean? I'm confused," he said, turning around to face her, his face mirroring everything that she felt right now.
Walking closer to him, Phoebe raised a hand and rested it softly on his cheek, feeling his body shake under her fingers as he looked at her, scared of moving for it could scare her away again. She wasn't going anywhere though, coming so close to seeing him die had troubled her enough to understand that she couldn't stay away from him much longer.
Slowly, she got up on her tiptoes, her eyes moving from his eyes to his lips, knowing that once she kissed him there would be no going back. She knew it because it had always been that way, her body had always reacted to his more than she had never even thought possible. It scared her in a way that he couldn't understand, that's why she had wanted to stay away at first.
He had so much power over her, but she hoped, she truly hoped, that he wouldn't use this power to turn her evil again. Not again, she rectified herself, it hadn't really been him who had turned her evil, it had been the source taking control of his body.
This was Cole. Human, mortal, Cole.
Reaching up to close the small distance between them, she finally rested her lips on his, slowly. He didn't move at first, not quite knowing if doing anything would make her run away again, leaving his poor heart more broken than it already was.
When he realized that she wasn't going anywhere, he wrapped his arms around her, allowing himself to really kiss her. Liquid fire was slowly going through Phoebe's veins as his mouth moved over hers, taking back everything that had always belonged to him anyway.
It was the moisture on her cheeks that made her pull away softly, wondering if she hadn't realized she had been crying. When she looked into his eyes though she realized that it hadn't been her. His eyes were slightly red, and he looked away for a moment before she turned back his head towards hers.
"Allergies, guess I'll have to deal with them now that I'm mortal again," he explained and she softly chuckled, going back to kiss him again.
She knew very well that it wasn't allergies. She knew it because she felt exactly the same thing. It was his heart swelling so much that it overflowed, love slowly running down his cheeks.
Daryl had been right, their love was epic, spanning years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed, epic.
And after all, no one wrote songs about the ones that came easy…
There you go! Hope you guys liked it! Drop me a small review if you did! :) Thanks for reading! See you soon!