A/N - WickedR, the reason that I'm uploading one chapter at a time is because I'm making some corrections and fixing the formatting. The chapters that I have were recovered from an old PC that crashed, so there are a lot of odd codes in the text that have to be removed. Don't worry, I'll be getting the story up as quickly as I can :-)
Cole shimmered out of the Manor in the wee hours of the morning, telling Phoebe that he was going to the Underworld to see if he could find out why Shax was after Paige. He had no intention of going to the Underworld, though. He didn't need to; he already knew the answer to the question. He had just wanted to spend some time alone, to figure out what he should do now. At one time Cole had wished that he had been able to foresee the future so that he could have prevented what happened, but now…now knowing the future was an almost unbearable burden. The slightest little chance could have a snowball affect, and he had already made some little changes, the biggest one being that Paige hadn't orbed so Phoebe and Piper had no idea that Paige was magical.
So now that he had made changes, how far did he go in changing the little things? Should he stop Cortez from discovering the girls in the attack with their dead mother and grandmother? Or should he just bring Cortez straight back to the Manor after retrieving him from Timbuktu?
Yes, that would work…he would let Phoebe send Cortez to Timbuktu, but he wouldn't drop him off in Hell on the way back. Now he just had to return to the Manor and tell Phoebe and Piper that the Source believed Paige to be another Charmed One, and then…and then wait for the moment when the Source would stab him and leave him to suffer until Phoebe found him -- and hope that Paige and Leo would save him. But Shane hadn't been hurt by Shax this time, which meant he wouldn't end up in the hospital. Would the Source still choose to possess him, or would he chose another vessel? This whole changing and not changing the future thing was giving him a migraine.
Finally, Cole decided to take a trip to the Underworld, just to have a quick peek. If nothing else, it would confuse any bounty hunters that were tracking him and maybe he could get a clue as to who the Source would possess this time around. While in the Underworld, Cole found the talk to be pretty much the same as before, Paige was a Charmed One and had to be destroyed before she reunited with her sisters. Learning nothing useful, he was about to shimmer back to the surface when he was hit with an energy ball, a bounty hunter having succeeded in tracking him without his knowledge. Don't be getting careless now, he though as he destroyed the bounty hunter with a well-aimed energy ball of his own before shimmering to the Mausoleum. Right then he wanted nothing more than to go to the Manor and let Phoebe make it all better, but he knew that it was what the Source and the bounty hunters would expect. No, he would not have them attacking the Manor. It was a minor wound, and one that would heal, and it was a reminder that he mustn't assume that things were going to play out exactly as they had before.
He wasn't sure how long he had stayed in the Mausoleum, but when he returned to the Manor it was early afternoon. Phoebe wasn't there in the living room, but Piper and Leo were. "Did you find out anything?" Piper asked before noticing the burned fabric of his shirt. "Cole, are you okay?"
"Bounty hunter snuck up on me," he said with a shrug. "I'm okay. And yes, I did learn something. Something very interesting."
"Cole, oh thank goodness you're back safe and sound," Phoebe said, running to him from the stairs. "I worry so much about you when you're gone," she told him, snuggling against his chest with her arms around him.
"I'm fine, Phoebe. Really."
"So what did you learn?" Leo asked.
"The reason that the Source sent Shax after that girl. Seems he thinks she may be another Charmed One."
"What? Why would he think that?" Phoebe was looking at him like he was crazy.
"That's just what the word is down in the Underworld. I'm sorry, honey, but I couldn't exactly walk up to the Source and say 'by the way, care to explain just why you think there's another Charmed One?' without getting myself killed."
"I know, Cole."
"Why don't I go ask the Elders if they have any idea who this girl is and why the Source thinks she might be a Charmed One." With that Leo orbed out, and Piper sighed and shook her head.
"This just doesn't make sense. I mean, according to the Book the Charmed Ones are sisters."
"So," Phoebe told Piper, "maybe we should ask Grams if she knows anything. You said that she told you 'your destiny still awaits'. I think she knows more than she was willing to let on."
The rest of the events happened as Cole remembered them, including the revelation that the girls had a half-sister, Paige, and Phoebe's spell that sent Cortez to Timbuktu ("It rhymes with 'undo'"). This time, though, when Cole went after the Inspector he returned him to the attic and Piper froze him.
"Okay, now what do we do with him?" Piper asked, looking from face to face for an answer.
"Leo, isn't it true that there is some sort of 'memory dust' that can be used in cases such as this?" Cole asked, remembering the time when Leo had used it…or was that would use it?…after Phoebe used magic to prove a defendant's innocence while serving jury duty.
"Well, yes…" Leo answered hesitantly, "but it…it's unpredictable. There's no telling what might be erased. Doctor's appointments, job interviews, a child's birthday…"
"So we'll have Darryl watch out for him for a while, make sure he hasn't forgotten anything important," Piper said. "Or have you forgotten what happened the last time we were exposed?"
"All right," Leo said, "I'll do it, and then I'll call Darryl and have him pick up the good inspector. Unfreeze him and I'll orb him somewhere else before I use the memory dust."
"And while you're doing that, we need to try to find Paige," Phoebe said, giggling a little as Cole wrapped his arms around her and tickled her sides.
"Any chance this is something that can be done while we snuggle together?" he whispered in her ear.
"Cole, I would love to snuggle with you, really, it's just that…we have to find Paige before the Source does."
"I say we check out that church that Mom told us about," Piper told them as Leo orbed out with Inspector Cortez, "so while I'm driving, the two of you can have your 'snuggle' time in the back seat."
"Thank you, Piper," Cole told her as they all headed downstairs.
"Just remember, you owe me," she replied with a wink.
