Author: Escargoat
Rating: Why don't we go FRM – I'm going to be on the borderline of FRT, and I prefer to err on the side of caution.
Part: (7/?)
Season: Season 8 AU
Disclaimer: I don't own. I'm making no money. Rights go to whole bunch of people such as the (now defunct) WB, TNT, the CW, Spelling Productions, and others. I'm not any of those people.
A/N: Poor Henry, he's becoming my personal plot device for exposition. A teensy tiny bit of Paige/Henry in this chapter if you don't like it, be forwarned.
Thanks again for all the reviews.
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Phoebe took a deep breath and tried to pretend that there were no butterflies in her stomach. Desperately she tried to summon the cold detachment that she had used when she had turned the nexus against her ex. Damn Coop, if he hadn't helped take down those barriers, she'd be able to do it.
Well, she'd just have to settle for a cordial indifference. She could do it. She was a good witch, a strong witch. She could withstand a pair of blue eyes and a pretty smile. She was stronger than that. She knew it.
"Ready?" she asked nervously.
"Have been for then last fifteen minutes," Victor replied his voice filled with his own doubts.
"Right. Okay, here goes nothing," she said as she threw a potion into the middle of the circle of objects that she had on the floor.
"Don't you have to say a spell or something?" Victor asked when the potion remnants just sat in the middle of the circle occasionally emitting a puff of steam.
"I said the spell over the potion. Don't worry it'll work."
"Tell me why you couldn't use this to bring your sisters back?" Victor asked nervously as the steam began to billow.
"Because they're in heaven and Cole is in limbo. And because Cole was sort of trapped between two realities, it's kind of different."
The steam from the potion formed a dark cloud in the circle, and the cloud actually began to rain.
"Is it supposed to be doing that?"
"Yeah, you see when the Zen master was trapped in an area of Limbo, the way out was through water. Only, I didn't think that then one Zen master I know would be very interested in bringing back, well, a half-demon. Still, the water principle should work. Besides if it doesn't, it still looks cool."
A small lightning bolt shot out of the cloud and hit the floor leaving a scorch mark.
"Guess I should be glad that I haven't gotten new flooring up here yet," Phoebe commented.
As more lightning strikes began to happed, the cloud began to swirl in a tight circle. The water that had fallen from the clouds started to ripple underneath it, but did not splash outside of the circle.
"Phoebe, did you create a tornado in your attic?"
"Actually, I think it's more of a typhoon."
"Is everything okay up here?" Henry asked as he poked his head through the attic door.
"Fine, I thought I told you to keep the boys downstairs," Phoebe reprimanded.
"The boys are downstairs. Is there a hurricane in the middle of your attic?"
"No, there isn't. It's a typhoon," Phoebe replied defensively.
"Aren't they the same thing?"
"Not exactly. Look, Henry, just go downstairs and…"
A strong gust of wind blew through her entire attic cutting off Phoebe's words. The storm and the wind ceased and Cole for the first time in years stood before her.
"Ow," he muttered as he rubbed his shoulder, "I think I got hit by lightning."
"Oh my god," Phoebe finally managed to squeak out.
"Why is he naked?" Henry asked.
Cole looked down at himself, "I was wondering why it felt chilly in here."
"Very funny; cover your hairy self up," Phoebe snapped as she threw an old blanket at him.
Cole grinned at her as he wrapped the blanket around himself, "Oh don't be like that. It isn't anything you haven't seen before."
Phoebe stared daggers at him.
"Multiple times in fact," Cole egged her on further.
"There are other people in the room," Victor reminded them.
Phoebe turned away and hid her blush. For a few seconds, she and Cole had been the only two people in the whole world. Inwardly she cursed at herself. That had always been one of their problems. They could be so obsessive about each other that they did not notice anybody else.
A loud zapping noise caught her attention.
"Are you planning on letting me out of this cage, or am I supposed to help you from here?"
Phoebe grabbed a knife, walked over to Cole and handed it to him through the barrier.
"Skin first," she demanded.
"You never said I had to cut it myself," he complained.
"Well, if I'm wrong and the blade dissolves in your acidic blood then I can send you straight back to limbo so you don't go homicidally crazy again."
Cole sighed, closed his eyes and became Belthazor. He smiled slightly when he heard Henry and Victor try to scramble away from him. Phoebe merely raised an eyebrow at him.
"Your vanquishing potion will work better if I'm in my demonic form when I take the flesh. Besides, it'll hurt less," he responded to her look.
"Really," she replied with a glance to the two mortal men in the corner of the attic.
"Oh, come on Phoebe, can't I have just a little fun?"
"Flesh," she demanded not even rising to the challenge that he was trying to set before her.
"Fine," he snapped perturbed that she would not even yell at him. Viciously, he drew the blade across his left upper arm. He grabbed the resulting slab of skin and threw it through the barricade at Phoebe's feet. Phoebe picked it up and threw it at a bubbling electric cooker that was on a table nearby. She smiled at the resulting explosion. Victor gagged at the oozing wound on Belthazor's arm.
Phoebe kicked one of the crystals out of the way, grabbed Belthazor's hand and made him sit down on a chair. She then grabbed some gauze and tape.
"Would you mind being, you know, Cole? The smaller biceps will make this easier to wrap."
He groaned slightly when he shifted back. It was mortifying really, the great Belthazor acknowledging the pain like that. Angered with himself that he allowed the pain, he grit his teeth together and stared straight forward when Phoebe applied the antiseptic.
It was uncomfortable, Cole reflected, having Victor and Henry as bystanders watching Phoebe patch over his wounds. Odd that he had never cared when Phoebe had doted on his injuries in front of her sisters. He wondered if it was because his relationship had changed with her. Actually, he did not wonder. It was not true. He felt uncomfortable because Victor and Henry were not magical beings. They were not supposed to be seeing a demon slice off a piece of his own skin. It was unnatural. Unnatural… the irony of Cole thinking that about anybody but himself would have made Paige laugh if she were still alive.
"All done," Phoebe said as she taped the final layer in place.
"Thank you," Cole said as he had no idea what else to say.
"So, why don't you come downstairs and meet the boys?" Victor mentioned when Cole seemed to stare at Phoebe a little bit too long.
Cole looked at him askance, "You want me to meet your grandchildren while I'm wrapped in nothing but a blanket."
"Can't you just conjure your own clothes? I thought you could," Henry sounded confused.
"Only when I turn into Belthazor, which you really don't want me to do that much. And how did you know about that?"
Henry shuffled his feet. "I read one of Paige's personal journals. She had about twelve pages dedicated to you in it."
"I'm guessing they weren't about my blue eyes and sexy smile like Phoebe's journal."
"You read my journal?"
"Yes. Why do you sound shocked?"
"Maybe because I thought you valued my privacy."
"Well, last I checked, you were telling me how evil I was, so one would assume that you wouldn't be surprised by a little snooping. Besides, you're the one who left them at the penthouse."
"Oh, and that makes it right?"
"No, it made it tempting, and in case you don't recall, I wasn't exactly able to resist temptation very well back in those days."
"Whoa, whoa, time out. You two agreed to move past that," Victor pointed out.
"You're right Dad. I'm sorry," Phoebe conceded.
Cole said nothing. Phoebe politely kicked him in his shin.
"Sorry Victor," he mumbled.
Phoebe plastered a big grin on her face. "Well, Henry, why don't keep your good buddy Cole here company while Dad goes downstairs and takes care of the boys."
"Wait, where are you going?" Henry asked a bit unsure of what was expected of him.
"I'm going to go buy Cole some clothes."
"Yes, I know, no spandex except for the underwear and all cotton socks," Phoebe added when she saw Cole begin to open his mouth.
The three men watched Phoebe waltz out the attic door.
"I think she forgot to ask for sizes," Henry commented.
Cole smiled fondly at the door. "No, she didn't. She still remembers."
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"Nice house you've got here Victor," a now dressed Cole commented as he looked around the very small guestroom that he had been told he could use as his own.
"Oh, it isn't my house."
"It isn't?"
"No, it's Phoebe's," Victor responded.
"Phoebe's… Don't you think that this might be a touch awkward? Me living here?"
"I think that your issues with Phoebe are going to be there no matter where you live."
"What issues would those be? The purple slacks she bought me or the canary yellow sweater with the blue polka dots?"
Victor laughed, "I can't say that you didn't deserve them."
Cole shrugged, "You're probably right, but I'm not speaking about Phoebe. I'm talking about Mr. Halliwell."
"Mr. Halliwell?" Victor asked in confusion.
"Phoebe's husband, you know, Coop? If he is anything like most men, he's not going to want the ex living with them."
"Who won't want who living with whom?" Phoebe asked as she walked into the room.
"Coop, I don't think he'll like me being here," Cole stated.
"Well, he might not like it, but I don't see how it's relevant," Phoebe responded easily.
"Phoebe, despite what you might think of me, I don't want to cause problems in your love life. You should think of your husband."
Phoebe felt the urge to laugh as she looked at the incredibly concerned look on Cole's face. He was trying so hard to be good, and yet the look in his eyes told a different story from the one on his face. Cole Turner wanted Coop to be happy about as much as he wanted to confess his undying love for Prue.
"Well, which husband would that be exactly? You or Dex?" Phoebe replied with a wry grin.
"You haven't married Coop yet?"
"No. I'm not going to marry Coop ever."
"But, you love him," Cole replied his voice a bit bewildered.
"Yes, I did love him. But if being with you taught me anything, it was that sometimes love isn't enough. And then the point got hammered in by Jason after you. Look, it doesn't matter. What matters right now is that supper is ready. So you two finish up in here and come downstairs."
With that, Phoebe turned around and walked out the door.
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Henry sighed as he pushed the door to his apartment shut. Dinner had been an interesting affair to say the least. He wasn't sure what he had expected of Cole, but he had to admit that an actual person was not what he had expected. Paige's notes had depicted Cole as a conniving evil doer. Henry had half expected that Cole would have horns.
Sure, Henry knew the dangers of stereotyping. A bad guy could be as clean-cut and baby-faced as they could come. But for as clever as Cole had seemed, the man struck Henry as more lost.
Henry shook his head as he readied himself for bed. He was glad that he did not have to have a discussion with Paige about Cole.
"What has Phoebe done?" Paige's voice interrupted Henry's slumber a few hours later.
"What?" Henry replied as he tried to blink the sleep out of his eyes.
"What do you mean what? What did Phoebe do?" Paige demanded as she threw a newspaper at him.
For a split second, Henry was worried that he was going to have the Cole Turner argument with Paige after all. Then he looked down at the paper in his lap. There was a blank gray space where Phoebe's portrait normally printed alongside her column. The questions and answers under the "Ask Phoebe" heading were nothing but gobbly gook.
"What is this?" he asked.
"That is what any whitelighter is seeing when they grab a paper with Phoebe on it. Nobody can orb into her or Victor's places. In fact, I'm the only one that they've found that can still get into your place. So what did Phoebe do?"
"Oh," Henry commented when he finally figured out what was going on.
"Oh?" Paige prompted him.
"Well, Phoebe did some sort of magic that keeps the Elders from interfering with the boys."
"Phoebe did this on purpose?"
"Pretty much," Henry confirmed.
"Oh, well in that case, I suppose I ought to be proud of her. I didn't think she was that sneaky."
"You're okay with this then?" Henry asked.
"Well, I'm not okay with it in the sense that I'd actually like to visit my nephews a few decades down the road. But as far as why she did it, I'd have to say I'm impressed. I just hope she thought this whole thing through."
"Paige…"
"Henry, I can't. I have to go now. The only reason they let me come is because I could get through. I'm sorry," Paige said as she orbed out.
Henry stared at the space she had occupied. "So am I, Paige. So am I."