I decided to put in a chapter between Cole and his mother to kind of deal with what happened in their past.

Chapter 10-Reunion

Putting her carefully down on her bed as he was sure the wound on her abdomen was painful, he was uncertain of what would happen to her. He knew she was hurt but there wasn't much he could do. She was part demon after all which meant there were no whitelighters to heal her. She couldn't be taken to a hospital. They would definitely suspect something if the woman's blood began to boil as he was certain it would. All he could do was search for a healer in the Underworld, which proved to be a lost effort because if there was a demon that could help him, they definitely weren't eager to show themselves and disappeared before he was able to approach them.

Getting her out of the manor hadn't been a difficult task once the barrier was down. He shimmered in and out, as fast as he could. He wouldn't stay and fight. This was still Pheobe's family, his children's family. Their aunt and cousin. He wouldn't harm them. She was unconscious when he saw her, her pulse thready, but he believed she would pull through. She was a fighter, always had been. She had lived for over two centuries, and was a professional at dodging energy balls, running.

Pheobe, though scared at what was happening to her mother-in-law, stayed downstairs with the children. She had to keep them from seeing their grandmother that way.

Cole sat by the bed, out of options. She was awake now, which he hoped meant she was feeling better, and she looked into his eyes.

"I didn't want to kill him, Cole," she creaked out and saw as a look of pain spread across his face.

This was a subject he had refused to hear before. Of course it made him uncomfortable. This was his father's death. Things had been going good between him and his mother and bringing up the past would only hurt both of them.

"We don't have to talk about this. I know how hard it is to resist the evil. You don't have to explain," he told her as he placed a glass of water in front of her.

"Yes, I do," she replied, determined to make him hear her. "The Source hated that I fell in love with Benjamin," she started.

"You should rest. Save your strength," he instructed her, uncomfortable with the words she spoke.

"He told me that if I didn't kill Ben, he would kill you, so I went to your father and told him that he would have to run away and take you with him," she continued, ignoring her sons requests that she stop. "He refused. He said that he didn't want you to grow up hiding, that he'd rather die than live in fear."

She looked into her son's eyes and saw the tears that he was trying to keep hidden.

"When Benjamin made me kill him, he thought that you would be safe, that he would trade his life for yours. I'm just so sorry that you've had to go through so much, that it wasn't as simple as he thought it would be," she apologized to her son.

She placed a hand on his face, wiping away a tear with her thumb.

"I'm sorry you never got to know him. I never wanted it to be that way. Neither one of us knew how to escape, to keep you safe. I was naive and thought that I could really leave evil and the Source, and raise you with your father as a normal family. I know now that this is what was meant to be. You needed to lose your father, to spin out of control and into evil so that you could be saved...by her. That was your destiny, just as it was my destiny to bring you back, to give your son his father back just as I wished I could have done for you," she explained to him, feeling as her body was beginning to give out.

Unable to find words, Cole was relieved when he heard the door open, and his wife walked in.

"What can I do?" Pheobe asked Cole, afraid as she saw the tears in her husband's eyes.

"Bring me my grandchildren," Elizabeth answered. "They need to at least have a chance to say goodbye."

"They're too young," Cole objected, not wanting his children to watch their grandmother die.

"I just want to hug them Cole, kiss them one last time," she pleaded with him, and glancing at her daughter-in-law, breathed in a sigh of relief as the young woman left the room.

Cole did his best to cover his mother with a blanket, making sure that the wound radiating from her abdomen would be hidden from view of the little ones.

"Nana, nana. I saw our surprise," Ben screamed running to her, but caught by his father's arms just before he flopped down on the bed. "Is it a boy or girl?"

"She's a girl and I know that you are going to take great care of her," Elizabeth responded to the little boy.

"Doggie," Persephone pointed to the small animal in her mother's arms. "Mine!"

She greedily tried to grab at the puppy with her chubby little arms, getting nowhere, no matter how much she squirmed.

After she got a chance to hug each of the children, she made up a reason for them to leave, not wanting to frighten them.

"I'm sorry about your father," she again apologized, feeling the energy draining from her.

Head bent down, eyes closed, Cole could sense as the presence orbed in.

Before words could be exchanged, she was healed, her wound gone, her face gaining back its color.

And he was there, Benjamin Coleridge Turner, standing above the woman he loved.

K, I'm gonna stop it there. A nice little family reunion. I think there's only gonna be one more chapter and an epilogue. They'll deal with Piper next. Please review. Sorry it took so long to update. I don't know why it did.