Till death do us Part…
Phoebe had gone to bed very excited, and had not being able to find sleep yet, no matter how tired she truly was. The thought of her impending wedding was just too big right now.
Phoebe:
"I can't believe it's going to work out…"
Cole:
"Apparently."
When Phoebe notices his lack of enthusiasm, she turns to him, slightly upset:
"Hey, aren't you happy?"
Cole:
"Of course I am… Phoebe I'm just a little tired," he says, trying to fight sleepiness.
Phoebe:
"I would have thought that you would be just as amazed as I am to the Elders' permission."
Cole:
"Baby, I am I swear. But for tonight, could we just sleep," he asks, trying to pull her toward him.
She still resists:
"I'm too wired to sleep." Then she asks again:
"Are you sure that you're happy about this?"
Cole smiles indulgently and moves toward her to kiss her, then he says:
"It may not look like it, but inside I'm jumping up and down," he says a bit teasingly.
Phoebe grimaces, then the smile is back on her face and she kisses him again before getting up.
"Where are you going?"
"I got to get up. I can't stay still."
Cole:
"Don't go too far…"
Phoebe:
"Good night."
Cole, almost asleep already:
"Good night."
Phoebe just goes to the living room and she sits there by herself, with a dreamy look about her. After a while of imagining the wedding of her dreams though, she becomes pensive, and even a little troubled.
She is so happy now, and usually that is when things go wrong. The thought is way too unpleasant. She wants only one thing at the moment and it is to start her life with Cole and their baby.
So why does she feel like it's all too good to be true?
Her mother's voice startles her:
"Hello my girl," she says softly. "You look troubled?"
Phoebe:
"Mom! How did you know I needed to talk to someone now?"
Patty:
"I'm your mom, even though I wasn't always there for you," she says, with a little guilty look.
Phoebe:
"It wasn't your fault…"
Patty:
"So," she says with her smile returning, "what is the problem?"
Phoebe:
"Well my problem is that there isn't one."
Patty:
"That doesn't make much sense."
Phoebe:
"I'm sorry, it's just that being happy has never lasted very long for me, and I'm afraid that something is going to happen."
Patty:
"So you really are happy?"
Phoebe smiles:
"Oh yes, really. I love him so much Mum, and we had so much to go through to get to this point…"
Patty:
"I know," she says in a soothing voice. "But are you sure about this? I mean, it's not going to be easy…"
Phoebe:
"There is nothing that I want more…"
Patty:
"Then you'll make it work, if I know you at all, I know that much."
Phoebe smiles and wishes that she could just hug her one more time.
As if she read her mind:
"I wish that too. Who knows, maybe at your wedding?"
Phoebe:
"Oh I hope so too!"
Patty:
"Good night my sweet."
Phoebe:
"So soon?"
Patty:
"I have to, but I'm watching over you always," she says before disappearing.
Even if it was short, Phoebe feels better now, and she finally decides to go to sleep. However, as she gets to their room, all her worries return when she thinks that she saw a fleeting shadow in the corner, who just disappeared. Still, she is so tired that she thinks she might just have imagined it and rejects the thought, seeing that Cole is still asleep and nothing seems to be the matter.
Meanwhile, Paul has stayed at the house, and he has not found sleep either. Prue wakes up as if she sensed something. Then she sees him pacing the room:
"What is it?"
He is a little startled by her question:
"Oh I thought that you were asleep, I'm sorry."
Prue:
"No that's ok, just tell me."
Paul:
"Oh well it's that thing about me trying to hurt you and your sisters…"
Prue:
"We know that it wasn't you."
Paul:
"Still, it doesn't make me feel better. I never thought that I would be vulnerable to mind control, no matter who exercises it."
Prue:
"From what you and your ghost friend told us, you didn't have much of a choice…"
Paul comes to sit beside her:
"You're not having second thoughts about me?"
Prue smiling:
"If I did, you wouldn't be here. And at any rate, you're not the first one in that house who gets possessed and does the worse, far from…"
Paul:
"I guess," he answers hesitantly.
Prue takes his face in her hands and kisses him softly:
"I do trust you. Really!"
Paul smiles now:
"Cole was right, you are special."
Prue lifts an eyebrow:
"Cole?"
Paul almost laughs:
"He once told me that he thought you would be more receptive than I anticipated to my secret. I must admit that I didn't believe him at the time…"
Prue:
"And now?"
Paul:
"In this case, he was right on the mark," he says taking her in his arms.
Prue:
"You know that I had my doubts, but I'm sure now."
He smiles and they roll on the bed, forgetting all about the last day's events for a while.
Downstairs, in the dark living room, the shadow is walking about. It looks like the dark ghost of a person, and the shadow looks around, as if searching for something. Then it homes in on the coffee table and materializes as a woman of about 30 years of age in appearance, but with a severe expression and an old fashion hairdo. She picks up a book and opens the cover. Right away she smiles at what she saw and she returns to her shadow like appearance with the book still in hands.
After only a moment longer, she disappears completely. Almost immediately, a whitelighter orbs in. He seems disappointed when he doesn't find what he was obviously looking for. He is preparing to orb out when Leo calls from the stairs:
"What are you doing here?"
The man:
"Nothing, I'm going now."
Leo:
"You shouldn't be here."
The man:
"I know I'm going," and he orbs out immediately.
Leo turns pensively to go back upstairs.
The next morning, short of a few sore muscles, everyone is in a joyous mood.
Paul:
"Hey guys I think that this calls for some kind of celebration, don't you think?"
Phoebe:
"To which: 'That' are you referring to," she asks with a smile?
Paul smiles:
"Well that," he insists on the word, "would be your engagement of course, and the fact that we are all in one piece after this little ordeal."
Cole:
"Great idea! When were you thinking of doing this?"
Paul:
"Well I thought that time should not be wasted, and that we should go out tonight. I'll make the reservation."
Phoebe:
"Oh and I have nothing to wear."
Prue:
"Phoebe! You're wardrobe is overflowing as it is."
Phoebe:
"Not really, I can't fit in more than half of my stuff. I need to go shopping now."
Prue:
"I don't think it's very reasonable, your budget is very tight…"
Cole intervenes:
"Don't worry, I'll take care of this."
This brings all of them about:
Piper:
"Sorry for asking but: with what?"
Cole:
"With my own money, what do you think?"
Prue:
"And just where did that money come from," she asks suspiciously. "I didn't think that you were working or anything."
Cole is a little hurt:
"Prue I resent the implications of what you're saying."
Phoebe asks a little more diplomatically:
"But I didn't think you had any…"
Cole:
"Well goes to say that you don't know everything about me…"
Phoebe:
"So?"
Cole:
"I get the feeling that you all think it's some kind of dirty money," he says with irritation, "but you're mistaken. I have an inheritance that I barely touched, so it's more than enough for me to take care of you."
Phoebe is astounded, as are the others:
"You what?"
Cole now smiles a little:
"From my father…"
Phoebe:
"And you didn't think of telling me that before?"
Cole comes closer and with a teasing smile, he says:
"I didn't want you to marry me for my money…"
She slaps him on the shoulder, but she is still a bit amused.
Piper:
"I guess that explains the expensive ring…"
Cole:
"Yeah," but he doesn't elaborate.
An uneasy silence takes place and everybody seems to concentrate on the breakfast. Then Paul continues:
"Ok then, is it a plan?"
Prue:
"I guess."
Paul:
"Perfect, I'll make the reservations and let you know the time."
Cole:
"So Phoebe, did you want to go shopping this morning?"
She grins:
"How much shopping can I expect to be able to do?"
Cole responds in kind:
"Is that an inquiry on what I own?"
Phoebe:
"Well if we're going to live together…"
Cole:
"Why don't we talk about this later," he says, feeling the curious look of the others on them?
Piper just says:
"Figures."
They all start laughing.
Later that morning, Phoebe is having a great time shopping, so much so that Cole feels he has to say:
"Are you about done?"
Phoebe turns to him, unsure now:
"Why? Do you regret offering?"
He comes to her and takes her in his arms with an indulgent smile:
"Never. But I might be a little tired of this though. I can't say that it's an activity I practiced much."
Phoebe smiles:
"Well, that's the suffering of a husband's life, you should get use to it."
Cole:
"If that's all it takes, I guess I can make do…"
Phoebe looks at him with an alluring smile:
"Well there are still perks…"
Cole:
"I'm counting on the reward."
She laughs before returning to the changing room to try yet another outfit, and he sighs in spite of himself.
Behind one of the clothes rack, the whitelighter from the night before is observing them intently. He seems very troubled.
However, he has to step further behind the rack when Cole looks his way suddenly.
Cole just had a weird sensation; a pain in the pit of his stomach that usually tells him something is amiss. Yet, looking about, he cannot find anything that remotely looks dangerous, and he imagines that it might be some case of the jitter or just plain boredom. He shakes his head when the sensation goes away, and almost laughs at himself.
When Phoebe returns and goes straight to the next rack, he forgets all about the bad feeling, and just sighs again, while sitting down to wait some more…
Behind the rack, there is no trace of the whitelighter…
At the manor, Piper and Prue are discussing the latest revelations:
Prue:
"Are we so sure that he is telling the truth about the money?"
Piper:
"Really Prue, one would think that you would have gotten over your doubts by now, particularly after what happened in the last couple of days."
Prue:
"Still, do you really think that he would tell us if the money was coming from his evil past?"
Piper:
"I choose to believe that he has become decent enough not to do this. And after all, he didn't really have to tell us. None of us suspected."
Prue:
"Yeah maybe you're right. Although I always wondered where he found the designer clothes that he was wearing."
Piper:
"And everything else…"
Prue:
"Well I suppose that no matter what the truth is, we will never know for sure. It's kind of a relief though."
Piper:
"How so?"
Prue:
"Well I didn't want to say but…"
Piper:
"Oh I see."
Prue:
"It's not a comment on Leo per say."
Piper:
"It does seem like it."
Prue:
"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, it's just well, you would expect a husband to at least participate in the family income…"
Piper is very miffed now:
"He participates plenty."
Prue:
"I'm sorry I brought it up. I know it was stupid of me."
Piper:
"That's ok I guess, and yes it's good that she doesn't have to pick up the tab."
Prue:
"Imagine that. I'm sure it never occurred to her before."
Piper:
"Probably not."
Their conversation is interrupted by Phoebe's laughter. She obviously just came back from a long shopping session.
The girls' eyes grow wide at the number of packages she's bringing back.
Phoebe:
"What? Can't a girl indulge herself once?"
Prue:
"Well I hope that you won't do this every day, because the inheritance won't last…"
Phoebe pulls her tongue at her but her smile returns when Cole enters with yet more stuff…
Cole, who notices the other's stare:
"Don't ask…"
Phoebe's smile disappear at this:
"Hey if you're all going to gang up on me?"
Cole:
"Not at all, I just meant that I had enough for today, don't you?"
Phoebe, not fooled at all, just says:
"For today," to which he grimaces a little.
Phoebe:
"Just kidding…"
He chuckles, then offers to carry the packages upstairs.
"If you don't mind, I think I'll have a nap afterward, all this waiting is tiresome."
Phoebe:
"That's fine, I've got to go to school anyway."
When he has left with an armful, Phoebe goes to the living room, intent on retrieving her schoolbooks.
She calls to her sisters:
"Hey did you see my treaty on child psychology? I was sure that I left it in the living room."
Piper comes to look too:
"Haven't seen it in here. And I'm sure that it wasn't there this morning when I came in."
Phoebe is puzzled:
"Well maybe I left it at school after all, it's been a hectic couple of days. I forgot."
Prue, who just came in too:
"Yes that and all the shopping…"
Phoebe:
"Oh don't start again."
Prue:
"Alright. It's just that it seems so extravagant."
Phoebe:
"Come on, it's been so long since I've been able to shop without worrying, and I must say, maybe I was overcompensating a little."
Prue:
"Why?"
Phoebe:
"Oh well, I'm still a little worried that something bad will happen."
Piper:
"Be positive sis. Whatever happens, I'm sure you can take care of…"
Phoebe:
"Funny. That's what mom said last night."
Prue:
"You saw Mom?"
Phoebe:
"Just for a moment, but I think that I needed it."
She smiles at the thought.
Cole cannot sleep, he just keeps thinking of what happened at the store. He still believes that it was nothing, but just like Phoebe, he has gotten used to trouble intervening at the most inopportune moments.
The thought of her brings back the smile on his face. She looked so happy that morning, although maybe a little extravagant, he tells himself. Still, with all that's happened, he now was very happy to be able to do this for her. He had yet to process the fact that things were really going forward. "Who would have thought a year ago that I would find myself all giddy at the idea of marrying a witch? Most certainly not me." But as incongruous as it might have seemed then, he really thinks that it was meant to be. And he finally falls asleep with a lingering smile on his lips.
Right then, the shadowy form appears in the room. She approaches him cautiously, and even in his sleep, he becomes agitated.
She hesitates, but when he doesn't wake up, she comes closer, and finally materializes just a few feet from him.
In a low and hard voice, she says:
"Soon you'll be coming back to me, whether you want it or not…"
She waves her hand over him, and he quiets down.
Then, she goes to the night table to pick up a brush and disappears again.
By the end of the afternoon, Phoebe was done in school, and was expecting Cole to come and pick her up, but after 30 minutes of waiting she gave up. She almost called, but she figured that he probably was busy preparing for the evening and decided on taking the bus instead…
Meanwhile, Cole was just waking up with a start, wondering how he could have slept all this time. He had had a weird dream just now, one that had left him unsettled. But again, he put it aside thinking that it probably was just that: a bad dream. Then he remembered he had promised Phoebe to pick her up and saw that he was very late. He almost decided to just shimmer there but decided against it. Then he hurried out of the room…
Phoebe had been waiting for a few minutes when she began to feel anxious for no apparent reason. Nobody was around except a black lady in colorful clothing, coming toward the bus stop. There was really no reason for her to worry about a thing, she told herself. Then, the black woman just stood beside her, and without any warning, she pricked her with some kind of needle. Phoebe immediately felt dizzy and had no time to react before the paralysis set.
She felt herself fall to the ground, seeing the woman smiling, then everything went dark…
Cole had arrived to the school, but of Phoebe he found no trace, so he started to think that she might have gone by other means. He was almost ready to leave, when he noticed a woman lying down on her back at the bus stop. He could see even from a distance that the woman was pregnant, and also that the clothes she was wearing seemed familiar. He moved anxiously toward her and, when he understood that something was really wrong, he started running to her. When he got there, at first he thought that she had just lost consciousness, but as he was trying to revive her, he noticed how cold she felt for the warm afternoon. And then he began to fear the worst and tried to shake her screaming her name, but she wouldn't react. Finally, he forced himself to check her pulse but there was none. Leo just orbed in then to see him hug her and cry angrily. Leo ran to them, pushing Cole aside to try and heal her, but it was too late, she was dead.
Cole:
"Why doesn't it work?" He asks in a sharp tone of voice. When Leo doesn't answer, choking on his own grief, Cole gets up and takes his arm rudely:
"Why doesn't it work" he repeats again, almost hysterically.
Leo finally extirpates himself from his hold and backing up a little, he says:
"I can't, she's dead…"
Cole looks at him as if to hit him, and for a moment Leo thinks that he really will, then he just turns to her and picks her up without a word. He then just shimmers with her before Leo could protest.
Leo orbs back to the mansion with tears in his eyes. He is trying to understand himself what happened. There was no warning. Not even a sign of a warlock or demon in the vicinity. And during his attempt at healing, he couldn't feel any illness that could have caused her death, yet she truly was, he could sense it.
Piper saw him and immediately knew that something was wrong.
"Leo? What happened?"
Leo:
"Piper…"
He has to take a deep breath, which feels painful to him, then he tells her:
"It's Phoebe…"
Piper begins to panic:
"Leo, what's with Phoebe?"
He comes to her and takes her in his arms before finishing, and by the time he told her, she already knew and had started crying inconsolably.
After a moment, she found enough voice to ask:
"How?"
Leo:
"I don't know. I found her with Cole not far from the school and she was already dead."
Piper:
"Where is she now?"
Leo hesitates:
"Cole took her with him. He was devastated. I don't know where he took her..."
They look up when they hear a noise coming from upstairs to see Cole just coming out of the room.
His face has a wooden expression and without a word, he just walks down the stairs and ignoring them, gets out of the house.
They are so surprised, that neither of them reacts right away, and then they climb the stairs heavily. Phoebe is lying down on the bed, lifeless.
Piper runs to her in tears and takes her hand, but when she feels her skin so cold, she knows that there isn't anything else that they can do.
She kneels beside the bed and cries for a long time…
Three days later, the girls are getting ready for the funerals and Piper looks in Prue's direction with a pained expression. Ever since she told her about Phoebe, she has waited for a reaction, but Prue has been simply very quiet, and Piper fears that she is refusing to accept what happened. Paul has stayed by her side throughout the 3 days, but just like Piper, he doesn't know what to tell her. He wonders why she can't just cry. In a rare moment of animation, she turns to Piper and Leo and asks brusquely:
"Where is he? He hasn't showed up in the last three days…"
Leo:
"I suppose that he needs time alone, but it might be a good idea to try and find him, if only to get him to come to the funerals…"
Piper:
"And which one of us will do that? He hasn't given a sign in those 3 days, and I'm worried on what it might signify…"
Leo:
"All the more reason not to leave him alone now. I think that he has more than proven his desire of staying on the side of good, but if left alone…"
Piper:
"But what if her death changed this," she asks, choking on her tears at the returning thought of her sister?
Leo wraps his arms around her and continues:
"We should at least try."
Prue:
"I will go."
Leo:
"Prue, are you sure? You might not be the one to talk to him right now."
Prue:
"And why is that?"
Leo hesitates:
"Maybe because you don't seem to deal with what happened very well," he finally says, expressing the thoughts of everybody present.
Prue:
"Maybe on the contrary I'm the only one who can. If it comes from me, he might believe that we want him there."
Leo is not convinced but she doesn't give them time to change her mind as she is already moving toward the door.
Paul signals to Leo that he will make sure she's ok, then he follows her.
He himself has had to deal with the terrible blow that not only her death but the child's death has dealt his kind. But for Prue's sake, he has pushed aside his own pain, knowing that no matter how much time passes, his death will forever be a burden that he will carry.
At the funeral home, they haven't closed the coffin yet, and Cole is there, sitting by it, without a word or a tear. Contrary to what they thought, he had spent the last 3 nights in this place. He still couldn't accept what happened. Every time he looks at her, the sharp pain returns and in those moments, he is not sure of what he wants to do. He feels that he cannot return to what he was, but on the other hand, by moments, the thought of violence appeals to him, as if it could stop the pain. He has made sure that he wouldn't meet any of them during those 3 days because somehow he thinks that seeing their pain will make this more real and also, he couldn't stand the look of pity in their eyes. Yet he couldn't help himself but return here every night, where he felt he was closer to her in spite of the fact that now, her body was only an empty shell.
Behind him, in an alcove, the whitelighter from the store is there, watching him. He also has been coming here, and from the look of him, Cole's pain as well as her death has devastated him. This time though, he orbs right by Cole's side after a while, knowing that Cole has even been avoiding the people of the funeral home, and would have gone if he had heard him approaching.
Cole jumps at the sight of the whitelighter and almost shimmers, but the man puts his hand on him and says:
"Please stay."
Cole is unsure of who the man is, or what he wants, but he doesn't go.
The man:
"Thank you, I needed to talk to you but I didn't know how."
Cole doesn't answer, turning to her instead.
The man continues:
"I know that it must hurt terribly, and I didn't want to ad to your burden. But I feel I must tell you something."
Finally after a moment where he doesn't seem to want to continue, Cole turns to him:
"What do you mean," he asks with a slightly threatening voice? "Talk."
The man sighs:
"I think that I know who killed her."
That definitely got a reaction from Cole. He moved closer to the man:
"Talk now," he said with a growing impatience.
The man:
"First, you have to remember that no matter what, you can't change what happened, and I'm telling you this only so that you know.
You won't be able to do anything about it. I just felt responsible."
Cole is now more suspicious:
"Who are you?"
The man sighs heavily and looks in Phoebe's direction before turning back to him:
"I'm your father."
Cole is genuinely surprised. He had no real memory of his father or ever seen a picture for that matter. His mother had seen to it that his memory was long forgotten by the time that he had become completely evil. Only his own curiosity had pushed him to learn more about him, and the fact that he had received a sizable inheritance from him.
Even though Leo had told him about his father being a whitelighter, he never thought that he would see him. Let alone in those circumstances.
But then he also remembered his last admission:
"What do you mean responsible?" He asks in a broken voice
Benjamin:
"It was your mother…"
To Cole, it's like he planted a knife in his chest. Of all the possibilities, he had never anticipated that it had been his fault. At least, not that much…
Benjamin could see the terrible pain in his son's eyes but he couldn't find the words that would end his torment and, before he could say anything, Cole shimmered out.
Just then, he heard a noise coming from the next room and he retreated rapidly in the alcove. The people from the funeral home came to close the coffin, and the sound of the lid closing made him flinch. But after they left, what horrified him was to see the shadow coming toward the coffin. He didn't dare move, and just observed what she did.
She materialized to the woman he remembered, and gestured toward the coffin, making the lid come up again. Then both her and Phoebe's body disappeared. The lid slowly closed again…