"Brendan," Ola spoke cajolingly as she slowly started to step toward her dear, tortured friend. "Brendan, it's okay," she told him. "It's over now. It's all over. They'll never hurt you or make you do anyzing you do not want to ever again."
He shook his head, the scraggly remains of his shaggy fur coat shaking with the bare movement. "It's not okay," he whimpered, refusing to meet any one's gaze. "It'll never be okay. I killed her!"
"It's not your fault." Prue reached out and touched the nearest spot of him she could reach, but he jerked his foot away instantly. Batting back the tears that welled in her eyes, she recoiled and set back on her heels.
"Prue's right, Brendan," Ola agreed, laying a gentle hand on the anguished Witch's slender shoulder. "You know it's not your fault. We've talked about this many times before."
"But I never killed her before!" he whimpered. "I'm a - I'm a - I'm a - " His voice broke into a despairing howl. " - moooooooonster!"
"Non, you're no monster," Ola spoke gently, shaking her head and causing her long, raven tresses to shimmer down her back. "You're a very sweet man in a very hard, cruel situation in which you never should have been put, but your family caged you. They did all they could to force you to succumb to zeir ways, but you stood your ground. You never did what they wanted of you. You never became that monster, and now you're free. Zey'll never be able to try to force you to be a monster again."
"Because - " he sniffed and whimpered again. "Because I killed her!" His mournful cry echoed through the hospital corridors, and Ola hoped that Mick could keep the police from coming to investigate. She knew that Josef would keep them at bay, but his means were not the style that she liked to deploy. Mick would contain them, however, she knew, and would have help from the Halliwells' friend, Inspector Morris, which was exactly why she had called on her old friend.
"You never harmed her to free yourself. You stopped her from killing Prue." Ola shrugged, trying unsuccessfully to make light of the situation as her baby blue eyes again tried in vain to search out Brendan's big, brown, and tear-filled orbs. "Besides, we all know that she'll rise again with the next full moon."
Prue, Piper, and Phoebe looked in shock at the psychologist, but she only acknowledged Prue's gaze with a simple shake of her head and her lips pursing into a silent, shushing sound. "You know ripping zeir throats out do no stop Werewolves, nor do even explosions halt them. Werewolves are not stopped except zrough fire or a silver bullet blazed into zeir hearts. Neither has happened to your mother. With ze next full moon's light, she will be able to bring her body back together."
As she had been talking, Ola had also been slowly inching closer to the grieving Werewolf. Now she knelt beside his legs and silently gestured for Prue to come closer, which she did. Ola wrapped a hand around Brendan's left hand and slowly peeled it from his face. "Look at me, Brendan. We've been zrough a lot together, little one. We've worked zrough a lot of your Demons. Zis night you had to face zem, but you did not face them alone. You have ze most important saving grace now. You have a woman who loves you and would do anyzing for you."
"But - But I'll eat her!" He trembled, and the hearts of all who watched broke a little more in their compassion for this brave and gentle beast.
"Non, you won't," Ola said, shaking her head again. "We've been zrough zat too, dear boy. You're not going to eat her."
"B-b-bu-but if - if my wolf gets out of control . . . "
Prue could stand it no longer. Watching her love in such turmoil was causing her to ache with a pain beyond anything she'd ever known, and every inch of her heart, soul, and very essence cried out to comfort him by whatever means she could. His tail flopped on the floor, and she reached out and took it in her hands. Her simple action so shocked him that he at last looked at her, and time stood still for the lovers as their teary eyes locked with one another.
Brendan's ears twitched as shivers of delight from the way Prue stroked his fur, always careful to keep her gentle touches running with his fur and never against, and they heard Ola's gentle voice as though she called from a great distance from them instead of right beside them. "Your mother would have killed Prue tonight if you had not intervened. You stopped her. You did ze only thing you could to save Prue from your mother. Prue lives because of you, because you loved her so much zat at long last you dared to stand up to your family, to your mother, and do what you had never done before. You not only protected an innocent from your family tonight; you saved the woman you love from them, from your mother's jaws, from certain death."
"Brendan," Ola continued, her accented voice gentle and lilting, "if you had not stopped your mother tonight, she would have killed Prue. She would have killed your soul mate, and in so doing, she would have left ze world wide open for being destroyed. You see, mon ami, Prue is no ordinary Witch. She is one of ze legendary Charmed Ones. You've heard me speak of them before. Zeirs is ze ultimate power of good zat has saved this world and all who live in it many times over. Wizout the Power of Zree, all would have been lost long ago."
"Prue has accepted you for what you are. You do not scare her any more zan you scare myself. You only scare yourself, and it is time zat we not only face zat fear but overcome it. Look into ze eyes of ze woman you love, Brendan, and know, my brother, zat she is far more zan powerful enough to protect herself against your Werewolf should it ever come to zat zough it need not. Do you remember ze legend I told you once before, Brendan, of ze ring zat was crafted in love to keep any Werebeing who wears it from changing unwillingly?"
He nodded slowly as he continued to gaze into the trusting, soulful eyes of the woman he loved. Their heartbeats roared within his ears that were slowly returning to normal. They beat one rhythm. He knew they were meant to be together, but yet he also knew that he was a danger to her. He could never live with himself if something happened to Prue, and though she was a Charmed One, he knew the evil that lurked within him would not be stopped by that or anything else should it decide it wanted to eat her. A lupine question formed in the back of his throat as Ola spoke of the ring, and he wondered why she brought that enchanted object of his dreams up into the conversation. It was a legend, but it was a legend that had been searched for for millennia and would never be found, let alone worn by the likes of him.
"True love is ze most powerful force in all of existence," Ola continued. "It can build mountains out of ze tiniest of molehills, or destroy ze greatest of civilizations. It alone can outlast any other power known to any living being. It makes the most impossible things possible, and with true love, anything can be achieved. It was through the tears and trials of true love zat zat ring was forged, and it is true love zat has brought ze two of you together, true love that was prophesied to end your curse and complete ze Halliwell family which is ze singularly most Supernaturally powerful family in all ze annals of history and foretold futures."
"And ze ring," Ola said, slipping a golden, sparkling band from her pocket, "can only work if it is placed upon ze finger of ze Werecreature destined to wear it by his or her true love. Prue," Ola queried knowingly, "you love Brendan, do you not?"
Prue nodded. "With all my heart," she professed solemnly, and Ola placed the ring inside her upturned palm.
"Zen, with mon blessing, I give you ze Ring of Freedom." She turned back to look at Brendan. "Brendan, zis is what we've been waiting for all zese years. Now, at last, you'll be free, and zough your mother is far from dead, your pack will never endanger you or force you to do anyzing you do not wish to do ever again." She rose and walked backwards to stand with the rest of the Halliwell family.
Cole and Leo held their own loves close as the sisters cried. The couples hugged each other tightly, though their questing gazes remained on Prue and Brendan. "Is it real?" Piper whispered so softly that only Cole could hear her.
He nodded, his chin bobbing against the top of her raven-tressed head. "Yes," he whispered in return. "I'm sorry it took me a little while to get to you earlier, love. I was helping Ola retrieve it."
And he had done so, Piper knew, to make her sister happy, not because he was overly concerned with Brendan and Prue but rather because he knew that her sister's happiness meant even more to her than her own happiness. Piper nodded, beamed proudly, leaned up on her tip toes, and kissed him gently. "Thank you," she said.
He stroked her beautiful face tenderly in his adoring hands. "I love you!" he told her quietly, not wanting to interrupt Brendan and Prue's life-changing moment.
"I love you too!" Piper whispered back and kissed him again before turning her gaze back to her sister and her man.
"Is it possible?" Phoebe whispered urgently to Leo and was relieved when he nodded.
"I've never heard Ola tell a lie," he told her, "and she's dedicated her entire life to finding this ring after learning of its existence. Honestly, I wasn't sure it still existed until now, but if she says it is, it is."
Phoebe quirked an eyebrow at Leo. "You sound like you like Ola a lot. Should I be jealous?" she teased.
"Never," he told her, caressing her soft, brown hair. "I have eyes only for you, but Ola is the foremost expert in calming monsters. Her brother was a Werewolf," he whispered to her, "who killed himself when he accidentally killed their mother. Ola's been searching for a cure and doing all she can to help the Weres ever since. Brendan's kind of a . . . special project for her. She told me once that he reminds her of her brother."
"He's been through a lot too, hasn't he?"
Leo's eyes misted over as he thought of all he had learned of Brendan's past after researching the man when he'd found out that he was a Werewolf. He had been convinced that he would be a danger to the sisters but had learned, just as Ola and Cole had, that Brendan was the only one who could ever complete Prue and make the eldest Halliwell whole. "More than you can imagine," he whispered.
"That's okay," Phoebe said, shimmying in Leo's arms until she made his eyes twinkle again. She grinned up at him. "We Halliwell sisters have a way of saving our men." She kissed him then, deeply and passionately, before turning back to her sister and her soul mate. Finally, she thought, finally they were all going to be happy with the men their hearts and souls had chosen and the loves they deserved! At long last, they were all going to get their happily ever after endings! Life wasn't a fairy tale, she knew, but it didn't mean that the best aspect of all the fairy tales, that of true love, couldn't be theirs. Her grin grew. Indeed it was.
"Brendan," Prue was speaking, "I can't even imagine a life like yours, all the heartache and pain that those monsters who are your family put your through, but it doesn't have to be that way any more. I love you! I want to be with you forever, and I'm not scared of your wolf! Like Ola said, I can handle anything he dishes out, but what I really want to handle, for now and for forever, is you!"
She was holding his hands in hers, and now she let go of one of those hands. "I know you're scared. I know you're hurting, and I know you blame yourself. But you not only saved me tonight. I know you think that I wouldn't have been put in this danger if not for you, but you saved me when we first met. I was lonely even despite all of my family. I was empty inside, searching for what I didn't know, until I met you. You complete me! You save and make me whole!"
"Please don't run from me ever again, because if you do, you'll be putting me back in that dark place!" She shook her head. "I know I'm strong. Being a Halliwell, a Charmed One, makes me that way. But that's one pain I don't think I could deal with again. I love you, and I never want to lose you!"
She slipped the ring onto his finger, and Brendan trembled as the traces of his wolf began to slip back into hiding, returning his body to his full mortal form. Even as he changed, Prue leaned up and kissed him. She felt his tremblings and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly and keeping his lips covered with her own. Gently, timidly, her tongue slipped from her mouth to delve into his, and she tasted of the sweet mouth and salty tears of the man she loved.
She kept kissing him, her heartbeat pounding in fear that he might yet turn away from her. She couldn't blame him if he did for she knew he'd been through Hell and back and blamed himself for his own family's destruction, though, from everything she'd heard and all the pieces she'd not heard but had been able to put together for herself, they were to blame for all the horrors her poor baby had suffered. She'd protect him from here on out, though, she swore. The ring would keep him safe from changing, and she herself would make sure he never suffered another hardship again for as long as they lived!
Slowly, ever so slowly, as Brendan gradually realized that his Werewolf was not leaping out to play and that the golden, glowing ring was truly working, he began to kiss his beloved soul mate back. His world had been a dark and bloody Hell before her light had entered it. Ola and the one other friend they shared, the Sorceress who had originally broken him free from the imprisonment in which his family had placed him, had pierced that darkness with their caring lights and kind hearts but never once chased it away. It had always been there, clawing at him, making him tremble within the cage that was his own body, and terrifying him constantly, but now at last, at long, long last, he was free and could love the woman of his dreams, the woman whose love he knew he could never possibly deserve though he'd never stop trying to earn it every moment of each and every day!
He gathered her close to his chest, their hearts pounding together in the powerful rhythm of true love, and slowly lifted Prue up. He stood with her before all the eyes of those who watched them and cared for them both. Ola clasped her hands together in glee, her baby blue eyes swelling to overflowing with tears of pure joy. Cole and Piper and Leo and Phoebe pulled even closer together and kissed in celebration, and then Brendan whirled his lady love around and at last lifted her from his lips to howl in joy. "I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, !" he trumpeted with all the happiness and love that shouted throughout every fiber of his being, and still his Werewolf did not threaten to burst free.
He was free at long last, he realized, truly free, and he had this wonderful, remarkable, and extraordinary woman to thank not only for controlling his beast and freeing him but for loving him and filling his life, heart, and soul with goodness, joy, light, and, most of all, love! "I LOVE YOU!" he shouted again, and then he brought her down to his lips and kissed her again and again. With each sweetly and heatedly passionate kiss, he proclaimed his love to her, and he vowed then and there that his life, which now had new meaning, would forever be dedicated to keeping her safe and happy and reminding her always, every second of every moment of every day and night, how infinitely much he loved her alone and always would for all eternity and infinitely beyond!
Ola wiped the tears from her eyes, but more fell. Her pointed ears heard the howl of the Werewolf who was no longer with her in person, and she bowed her head and said a prayer of thanks. No wedding had ever been more beautiful than the joining of two hearts she had just witnessed, and she knew that soon she would be attending a triple wedding. She'd be there, and she'd continued to be there for not only her dear friend, Brendan, but for all of his rightful, destined family as long as she breathed. She wrapped her arms around herself and hugged herself slightly as the loving couples celebrated their true love all around her. The ring of love was complete at last, she thought, smiling from ear to ear, and the Charmed Ones', Brendan's, Cole's, and Leo's destinies and deserved happiness were at long last fulfilled.
She turned and walked away, her blue eyes and heart sparkling with the laughter, kisses, and joyful shouts that echoed through the hospital. Then a quiet voice started to call her name. "Doctor LaBelle? Doctor LaBelle? Excuse me, Doctor LaBelle?"
Ola turned and met the newcomer, saw the goodness and desperation in her eyes, and nodded. "Oui, Felicia. I will help you." Though completed for one family, the ring of love was beginning again, and she would see it through to the end again and every time thereafter for the whole world deserved a happily ever after.
To Be Continued . . .