Summary: Cole Turner has survived for 4 years without Phoebe, raising their son by himself. But what happens when young Warren wants his Mommy?
Disclaimer: When I buy it, I'll let you know it's mine.
Chapter 13
"Ugh, fine!" Paige groaned. "I give up! Joel can stay with you for the moment. Well, as long as Social Services say it's ok for me to foster him."
"You want to foster Joel?" Phoebe grinned.
"Sure. It's the obvious solution, isn't it?" Paige shrugged. "Why? What's that grin for, Phoebe? You don't think I can do it?"
"Well, you just don't seem the mothering type." Phoebe replied honestly.
"So? Neither do you."
"I don't need to be a mothering type, Paige. I'm not fostering anyone." Phoebe replied.
"No, but you – ow, Cole!" Paige glared at him, rubbing her leg where the lawyer had kicked it. He narrowed his eyes at her, warning her silently to keep her mouth shut.
"You are an idiot, Paige." He told her solemnly, glancing at Phoebe to make sure she didn't suspect anything. The middle sister wasn't listening, however.
"Warren's calling you, Cole." She informed him, wondering why he hadn't heard his son's voice.
"Daddy!" the four year old called again, the sound of pattering feet alerting them to the fact that he was coming in. "Daddy, can we have popcorn?"
"What's the magic word, War?" Phoebe laughed, lifting him up.
"Umm…abracadabra?" he tried, ginning disarmingly at her. Cole and Paige laughed.
"Try again, sweetie. Puh – plll" Phoebe encouraged him. His face lit up as he realised what she was hinting.
"Please!"
"I'll get it." Paige offered, getting up. "Don't tell Piper we have these." She warned Cole, emptying one of the cupboards to pull a loose board from the back.
"Paige, you can't show him our stash!" Phoebe whined. "What if he tells Piper?"
"He's not going to tell Piper." Paige protested, rummaging in the cavity behind the cupboard. Cole made his way over to her, picking up food she had discarded in her hunt for the popcorn.
"Powdered lemonade? Pot noodle? Instant coffee? What is all this stuff?" he asked wonderingly.
"Aha!" Paige exclaimed, grinning in triumph as she pulled out…
"Microwaveable popcorn." Cole deadpanned. "This is your secret treasure trove?"
"Known to the very privileged few." Phoebe confirmed.
"Why is it so important?" Cole asked, confused.
"Remember me telling you Piper makes everything from scratch?" Paige questioned.
"Yes. Why?"
"Well, Phoebe and I can't cook that well. We freely admit it. So we like to cheat. But Piper doesn't, and if she saw that we had instant stuff around, well, you can probably imagine." Paige finished, shuddering. She tossed the microwaveable popcorn to Cole and began the process of replacing all their food.
"So you can't tell Piper. Right, War?"
"Yeah!" the youngster grinned. "It's a secret! Just like I'm not allowed to tell my mommy she's crazy." Cole's eyes boggled.
"Warren, you were awake?!" he spluttered, thinking back to the previous night. "I thought you were asleep! Why didn't you tell me?"
The logic of small children is incredible. The small boy looked at his father innocently before stating simply,
"You didn't axe." Cole groaned.
'Please tell me I didn't say her name. Was this what that annoying voice was talking about earlier?'
"Did your daddy say your mommy's name?" Phoebe asked slyly, trying to figure out the answer to the question that had been bugging her for a while. Just who was Warren's mom? Did they know her? Was she a mortal? A demon? Her excitement built as she waited for Warren's answer. She was disappointed as he shrugged.
"Nope." Cole heaved a sigh of relief.
"Popcorn's ready!" Paige chimed, pulling the bag out of the microwave and dumping it into a plastic bowl. "Now be careful with this, War. Ask Joel to hold it for you, ok? It's very hot."
"Kay." The small witch agreed, taking the bowl carefully in two hands. He left the room, leaving a thwarted Phoebe with her head in her hands and Cole with a small respite. This reprieve lasted all of 30 seconds as Phoebe became determined again.
"Cole, just who is Warren's mom?" she demanded.
"That's none of your business, Phoebe." Cole said smoothly. Paige looked uncomfortable, wanting to leave the room quickly.
"I'll go see if the boys are alright." She offered.
"No!" Cole and Phoebe barked simultaneously, both looking for support with their side of the argument.
"Paige, don't you want to know who your self-styled nephew's mother is? I mean, maybe Warren should be allowed to find out. Doesn't he have that right?"
"Honestly, I think that that's Cole's decision to make, at least until Warren's old enough to understand." Phoebe's jaw dropped.
"I can't believe I'm hearing this."
"Why do you want to know so badly, anyway?" Cole wanted to know. "How would it affect you?"
"I – I just do, that's all!" Phoebe blushed. No need for Cole to find out that she wanted to confirm that he really wasn't hers. She didn't even know herself why she was pressing the issue. She just knew she needed to know. One way or the other. "Cole, please!" she begged. "Maybe we can find her!"
"She abandoned Warren and I years ago. She doesn't deserve to know she has a son. She hurt us too much. She never had any faith in us. Why should she care that she has a son?"
"She would care." Phoebe argued.
"How do you know that?" Cole snapped back. "You don't know her."
"I would care." Phoebe answered quietly. "If he was mine, I'd want to know. To get the chance to know my son. Do you even know her reasons for leaving you? How do you know that she had a choice? For all you know, trying to let go of you both was the hardest thing she ever had to do. For all you know, she was forced!"
"We're not talking about Warren's mother now, are we?" Cole asked quietly.
"Cole." Paige warned. This was dangerous territory they were entering. Much as Phoebe and Cole needed to sort out their differences, if he wanted to keep his son's identity secret then he had to stop before he let something slip. Phoebe looked at the glances exchanged between the two before it clicked.
"You know." She breathed. "You know who Warren's mother is." Paige automatically denied the fact.
"What? No! No, of course I don't know who she is…sorry, Cole." She apologised, seeing she was caught.
"It's alright. It's probably my fault anyway." He reassured her. Knowing Phoebe would appeal to her sister next, he went on the offense before she had the chance.
"You don't need to know who Warren's mother is, Phoebe. She doesn't need to know, Warren doesn't need to know." He laced each word with venom, hoping to deter her from asking again. But Phoebe never had been scared of him.
"Paige knows." She protested. "We're as close to Warren as his own family. For God's sake, Cole, I love that boy as much as his own mother would! Can't you see that?!" she demanded.
"Read my lips, Phoebe Halliwell. It's none of your business!! He's my son, and I'm going to decide what's best for him!"
"But –"
"NO! No buts. For Christ's sake, Phoebe, HE'S NOT YOUR SON!!" The empath recoiled. The puzzle pieces all clicked into place, and Cole's denial suddenly confirmed what she had known all along.
"Oh my God. I was right." She whispered. "I was right all along, it was all there in front of me and I saw it but I just couldn't believe it and now it's all true?" the words tumbled out one after the other, her thoughts rushing out in order to make themselves known. She looked at her ex-husband in disbelief. "And you were never going to tell me, were you? You told my sisters but you were never going to let me know about him. Four years. FOUR YEARS!!"
"Four years what?" Paige asked cautiously. Phoebe directed her answer at Cole.
"Four years. Four years you let me think that I HAD KILLED HIM!!" Not thinking about anything, not feeling anyone's anger but her own, she walked up to Cole and slapped him. All her guilt, everything she had suppressed over the years so it looked like she was fine, it all went into her palm. The force of the blow left her hand stinging and snapped Cole's head to the side. For a minute, there was silence, but for the sound of breathing. Cole's heavy pants combined with Paige's shocked shallow breaths. After a minute Paige realised she couldn't hear Phoebe. Looking closely at her sister, she saw that she was looking beyond Cole, making no movement.
"Oh no. Phoebe! Phoebe, breathe." She instructed, seeing her sister's face turn from a pale white to a lilac hue. "Phoebe, you need to breathe now. Phoebe!" The shout shook Phoebe out of her stupor. She gasped in a huge breath of oxygen and burst into tears. She slumped into a chair and looked up at Cole.
"I'm sorry." She said between sobs. Paige wrapped her arms around her sister, comforting her as Cole stood shocked.
'No, shocked is the wrong word. What I'm feeling goes far beyond shock.' However, it was the only word he could think of to sum up the myriad of emotions welling in him at the moment.
'Why did she say sorry?' he wondered, the statement striking him as odd. 'You don't find out you have a child, slap the person who kept him from you and then apologise. Why?' Paige and Phoebe looked at him, and he realised he had spoken the last sentence aloud. Unsettlingly, Phoebe answered him, seeming to know what he was talking about.
"You're right, it was all my f – fault, I should have h – had more faith in you, sh –should have known you loved m – me more than that. B – believe me, if I could take it all b-back…"
'Shock is definitely the wrong word.' Cole thought. 'Maybe stunned? No, still too much of an understatement.'
'I'll say.' The voice agreed. 'I knew you couldn't keep it a secret forever, but that didn't quite go as expected.' The statement threw Cole off guard. It didn't sound like something an inner voice would say.
'Just who are you?' he asked.
'Not the time.' The voice admonished. 'Right now, you need to explain things to your wife.' Cole didn't even bother to correct him. He knelt in front of Phoebe so he was looking up into her face. Her sobs faded as he offered a sentence of his own.
"I should have told you." He said, reaching up to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "I was wrong."
AnimeAlexis: …I have absolutely no idea where that came from. A little bit emotional, huh? Well, at least now she knows! I know a lot of people were looking forward to that…umm, review?