Chapter Two

Cole shimmered into the Halliwell Manor's kitchen, his nose instantly rising into the air. He sniffed and frowned. He turned first to the stove, and his face fell.

"They're not here," Leo spoke softly from behind him.

Cole turned toward the White Lighter and was surprised to find him feeding the cat. Kit started eagerly devouring the food the moment it hit her bowl, and Cole's frown deepened. It wasn't like the sisters, especially not his beloved Piper, to fail to feed their baby. Prue and Phoebe might forget, but Piper always remembered, even when the world was turning into chaotic shreds around them all. "What's wrong?" he asked. Leo's face was ashen, and the look he wore troubled Cole down to the very bottom of his heart.

"I . . . I'm not sure," Leo slowly explained, carefully picking his words so as to not make the situation sound worse than perhaps it was. "I can't find them."

Cole looked quizzically at the White Lighter. Slowly he raised a single brow. "You can't find them?"

Leo nodded and forced down the ball that was forming in his throat. Piper and Prue still sometimes went off on missions without consulting him, but Phoebe had stopped doing so ever since they'd confessed their true feelings to one another. She might have to lock herself away in the bathroom in order to do it, but she always called him to let him know that they were going out, just in case things took a turn for the worse. She understood his constant need to protect them most especially out of all of his charges and did all that she could to make it easier for him to do so, unlike Piper.

He'd long ago lost track of the times that Piper had gone out without even so much as leaving a note for him, and she was always angered whenever he suggested that she should have told him where she was going. It wasn't that he wanted to "babysit" her as she'd often accused him of but simply that he couldn't protect them as well if he didn't even know where they going or what they were fighting against. Clear, important information always helped a White Lighter to perform his job better, and that was something that Piper refused to understand, let alone accept.

Leo shook his head as his thoughts whirled. Where were the sisters? What had happened to his love, Phoebe; to his wife, Piper; and to their sister, Prue? Why couldn't he find them? Why hadn't Phoebe told him something was happening? "I can't locate them," he answered. His emotions made his voice so soft that his words sounded like a hushed whisper.

Cole fought down his urge to panic and start hunting until he found the nearest evil Demon and ripped it apart. Something had his Piper! No, he told himself, it didn't necessarily have to be that. There had to be other reasons why her White Lighter husband couldn't locate her . . . "What would cause that to happen?" he asked, forcing the words to sound normal, as he stooped and stroked Kit's back.

Leo watched Cole petting Kit with interest. The Siamese cat never liked Demons, Warlocks, or anything else evil, but yet she allowed Cole's touch without a single flinch of doubt. Phoebe must have found a way to make peace between them, he thought, never once thinking that Cole might have, in a way, courted the cat.

Kit was important to Piper, and so Cole had used every opportunity to try to convince the cat to like him better. He had brought her treats of tuna, chicken, and cat treats. He had always spoken softly to her, never once raising his voice around the cat. Piper had taken to giving him bowls that she was cooking in to clean, and after he'd gotten what he could out of them, he always gave them to Kit. He smiled down at her. Evidently his plan had finally worked.

"It could be a spell," Leo said thoughtfully, desperately trying to come up with every acceptable reason he could think of that might keep him from being able to locate the sisters. "They could be in another dimension or another time . . . or . . . " His voice trailed off. He could not, and would not, - he wasn't sure which was more the case - say those awful words that he had dreaded having to say ever since he'd first fallen for Piper and Phoebe. He'd fallen for both of their charms at first, had later thought that Piper was the one he truly loved, and only discovered much, much later, when they'd almost lost Phoebe due to one of the countless Demon attacks upon the sisters, that it was the youngest Halliwell who had truly and completely won his heart.

Of course, by that time, he had already promised to marry her sister, and Leo, always a man of his word, had kept his vow. Yet there had come a time, when Phoebe had been attacked while walking home from college one afternoon, when the truth had come out. She had been dying when Leo had reached her, and she had grasped at him with what they'd both feared to be her final breaths and told him that she loved him. Leo had been working to save her, but he had been tired from another mission and his magic had not been as quick to respond as it usually was.

It was thus that he had committed the ultimate atrocity. He had told his wife's baby sister that he loved her when he was still married to her sister. Leo and Piper's marriage had been achieved through the greatest fight of their lives. The Council had finally trusted them to wed, and Leo had destroyed their trust in him and Piper's trust and love. He had thrown it all away in one quick and foolish moment when he'd admitted to his most secret, and guilty, feeling to the woman who had caused it.

Either the Council had somehow, by some miracle, been looking away at the time or They had failed to bring him up on the charges that would come from his deceit and betrayal simply because They understood that doing so might well cause the end of the Charmed Ones. Piper had already refused to keep working for them once when they had taken him from her. She'd promised to never do it again for that very reason, but yet They might still fear losing Their ultimate power against Evil.

Besides, there was no doubt in Leo's mind that if Piper ever discovered how he felt about her sister and how Phoebe also loved him in return, it would be the end of the Charmed Ones. Piper would turn away from Phoebe and himself, and Prue would follow. Although he could live without having Piper in his life, Leo knew that losing her sisters would kill Phoebe's heart and soul that were two of the biggest reasons why he loved her, and he knew he would not want to live without Phoebe's light sparkling in his world. He hung his head.

Cole closed his eyes as his hand stilled upon Kit's back. He reached out with his powers, but after a great deal of searching, he finally reopened his eyes and shook his head in remorse. "I can't find them either." He sighed. "Have you checked in P3?" he asked in desperation.

"Yes," Leo answered. He looked up, and Cole knew that he was being called. He waved at him to go ahead. "You check with your sources," he announced. "I'll check mine." He shimmered away, dread and despair inching into his soul.

Leo orbed up, praying for a miracle.

Kit looked around with a perplexed purr. She didn't know why the guys had suddenly left and wished that Cole had stayed. Leo was good for food, but Cole's touch had felt purrfectly wonderful.


Thirteen hours after the spell had began found Cole sitting in a luxurious chair in an apartment with his head buried in his hands. "We can't find them!" he sobbed to the beautiful woman who looked over him in great concern. "We've looked everywhere, Ola, checked with every one, but we can't find any trace of them! And it's been seven hours! Seven hours, and no word! That's not like Piper! You're our last hope!"

"Non, ma cherie," she spoke quietly, placing comforting hands that were as soft and white as snow upon his strong hands. "I do not believe I am."

His tear-filled eyes peered anxiously up into her lovely face. This was a woman that men had wrote sonnets about and had chased all over the globe for her beauty, but Cole knew her only for the beauty within her soul. She had been one of the few who had helped him to gain control over his Demon side, and helping beings such as he to overcome their evil natures was to what Doctor Ola LaBelle had dedicated her entire life. "You know some one?" he asked hopefully.

"Oui," she replied thoughtfully, "but we shall have to encourage him. You see, ze Charmed Ones, ze have a . . . shall we say . . . knack for falling in love with men who are of a nature more akin to zeir true selves. Zey do not want a normal man, no matter how much some of zem zink zey do. Zey want a man who can and will stand beside zem zhroughout everyzing zey must face. Zey seek a man who is more zan he appears."

"Ola," Cole ground out miserably, "I appreciate all you've done for me over the years, but I'm not in the mood for riddles!"

Ola nodded and smiled, accepting his temper and letting it slide by for the fear she understood it truly was. "Prue's new boyfriend is also a good friend of mine," she explained. "You must promise to never breathe to a soul of what I am about to tell you."

Cole nodded, his eyes meeting hers. "I promise. I vow it on my very existence."

"Including to him," she said, her French accent growing even thicker.

Cole gave her a curious look. The situation with the man must be grave indeed if he could not even mention whatever she was about to tell him to him. He chose his words carefully. His eyes never once blinked as he spoke, and in his eyes, he knew that she saw the truth of his words. "I swear to you, I promise, I vow on all that I am and all that I possess, even upon my greatest treasure, the love Piper and I share, that I will never say one word nor even think it in the presence of a known telepath."

Ola nodded her acceptance. "Oui," she approved. "Very well. Brendan is a Werewolf, Cole, and he needs our help perhaps more zan any ozer soul I have ever known . . . "

To Be Continued . . .