Back in the mausoleum, which he had shimmered to just in time to escape his own dagger's blow, Cole sat fighting back the tears that were growing in his eyes. He knew that he had caused Phoebe's death. He had allowed them to go back in time, and save their evil half sister. He could have stopped them from going, but they wouldn't listen.

"There was nothing else I could do!" he tried to tell himself. "The only person that could have stopped them was Patty and she's--"

Cole had never considered actually having Patty stop the chain of events. But how willing would a mother be to giving up her first child. Then again, it was an evil child. He would have to try, it was the only hope he had.

* * *

"I am not going to let anyone take my baby!" Patty insisted as she placed the notebook that she had been writing in on the couch.

"Even if in doing so you turn your other children evil?" Cole added.

"What do you mean?"

"The child inside of you is evil. Her father is a warlock."

"And how do you know this?" Patty asked suspiciously. How could Kevin be such an evil entity?

"I am from the future," he responded.

"And how do you know what will happen if I let the child be taken?"

"The timeline didn't affect me. I know both of the versions of the future."

Patty looked at him trying to decide if she should believe him or not. "And how come the timeline doesn't affect you?"

"Because I am, I mean I was, a demon. Actually, I still am, but thanks to Phoebe I am changing my ways." A tear came down Cole's cheek as he remembered seeing Phoebe dying on the floor. She was so helpless, and there was nothing that he could do.

"I believe you," Patty said at last. "What should I do?"

"You will be attacked by a woman. Then three young, beautiful women will come to save you and there will be a man with them. Don't let them help you. No matter what you do, don't let them succeed, but don't harm them."

"Who are these young ladies," Patty asked already knowing the true answer.

"They'll be your daughters, but only if you don't let them succeed."

"What happens if they do?"

"All except one will turn evil," Cole remembered how Phoebe hadn't changed when the rest of the girls had, but that could have been thanks to Cole or it could have been the way it was meant to be.

"And when will they become evil?"

"After your first born meets her father. He will cast a spell and as soon as she touches him, she will take on the evil that her father had."

"And what will happen to that one that is not evil?"

"She'll die," Cole responded trying not to get emotional.

"How?" Patty asked.

"The child that grows inside of you will kill her," Cole couldn't stop himself. He turned around and allowed the emotion that he had been holding back to be released. He hoped that she didn't see him, but it was lucky that she did.

"And why do you care what happens to my children?"

"Because I love them, and I love one of them more than you can imagine."

"The one you saw die?"

"How did you--"

"I saw it in you eyes. I saw the way you cared. And I saw your pain."

"Do you have the gift to--"

"No, but I am almost a mother, and I know."

"Are you married to her?"

"Not without the Charmed Ones' trust and their mother's blessing."

"Does she love you?" Patty asked.

"Yes, but I wished that her older sister would trust me more."

Patty stood and realized that the man in front of her was right. She had to follow his advice, no matter how much it would hurt to loose her first-born baby girl.

* * *

After Cole shimmered back to the Charmed One's normal time, Patty had somehow found time to write the letter to the father of her baby. Even though she wasn't going to have it, and he was a warlock, he still deserved to know.

When she finished the letter, she folded it up as neatly as a formerly high school student knew how. She stood up and lifted up the couch cushion and reached into a little slit in the bottom of the cushion. This was the only place where Penny hadn't found Patty's notes, and with the contents of this one, she hoped it stayed that way.

Patty started to replace the cushion when she realized that she wasn't alone in the room. A woman stood in the corner, watching her every move. This must be whom he was talking about, she thought.

Patty threw up her hands, but her power was too uncontrolled. Even though she knew about the woman's plans, it was in her witch's nature to try to stop her.

"I'm with child!" Patty blurted out thinking that the woman would have pity on the unborn child.

"I know," she responded. "Why do you think that I am here?"

Patty stood in silence not knowing what to do next, but she didn't have long to thing. The woman held up a paper and began to read:

The child which is yours no more
Leave your mother's womb secure
Place inside my motherly soul
The child which will now be stole.

The woman dropped the paper to the floor, but nothing had happened. Patty was new when it came to casting incantations, so she thought for a minute that it hadn't worked. The woman began to read it again, and this time Patty started to feel a little week.

Patty suddenly realized that she couldn't support her own weight. She began to sway and fell to the floor. As she laid, helpless, she could see the writing on the paper. The woman had repeated the first part word for word, but there seemed to be more on the page.

Patty strained to see what was printed, finally her eyes adjusted to the small handwriting.

The incantation must be repeated, but the amount of times is unknown. The power of the child will determine the strength the incantation requires.

"She must be powerful," Patty thought as she started to lose consciousness. The woman started to read it again, but this time something stopped her. Patty dreaded seeing an entity more powerful than the one that seemed to be killing her, but Patty knew whom it was. It was her daughters, her Charmed Ones.

As the girls appeared Patty strove to stay awake. She had to stop what was going to happen. Somehow she had to stay conscious.

"Mom!" Phoebe shouted.

"Hello, my babies," Patty said. "I know why you are here, but you must leave now."

"We're not leaving until we stop her," Prue declared.

"No, you can't. It is meant to be."

"How do you know?" Prue continued.

"Because I'm your mother, and I know what is best."

"Does that include destroying the Charmed Ones?"

"If you do what you came to do you, you will destroy the Charmed Ones yourselves--At least the Charmed Ones that are meant to be."

"Prue," Phoebe began, "I don't know why I know this, but she's right."

"Leave, now. Please."

As the intruder stopped her incantation to attack the girls they began a chant of their own--the chant to return home.

The bond that was not to be done
You gave us the power to see it undone
Move us forward to the time
When we first began this rhyme

The girls left the room with the power of a tornado, and to intruder stood and laughed.

"Looks like your saviors decided you weren't as important as they thought."

If you only knew how important I am to them, Patty thought as Carissa repeated the incantation one last time. Patty screamed in pain and fell into unconsciousness.

A few hours later she sat down to write a letter. This time it wasn't to Kevin; it was to her girls, Prudence, Piper, and Phoebe. It was an easy letter to write, but still she long to be able to know the child that was no longer hers.

"Maybe one day--" she thought, but then she realized that good or evil the baby wasn't hers anymore. She had allowed someone else to take her and raise her, it was a hard decision, but she knew that it was best for her children to come. Patty knew that she was still too young to be a mother, even with the help of her own mother. "No, it was the right choice."

One last thing to do, Patty thought. She picked up an old cherry wood box and placed the neatly written letter in at. She knew what the message would mean to her daughters, so she had taken some extra time to write it in calligraphy and place it in an envelope.

"Here goes nothing," Patty said hoping that her plan would work.

Take me away, forward in time
And deliver me to this house of mine.
Alone in a room for none to see
To where my daughters came to set me free.

The wind seemed to spin around her as if a tornado has found its way into the house, and when it died down she was standing in the kitchen. As she walked closer to the door she could hear the talking of three girls and a man. Patty decided that her spell had worked.

She walked over to the kitchen table and placed the wooden box on it. She took the key out of her pocket and placed it inside of the lock, turning it half way. If the Charmed Ones are as powerful as they are said to be, then they don't need a key. She removed the key and placed it back in her jacket pocket. Then she reached back for the box and placed her lips gently to the top of the lid, and then placed the box back on the table.

Return me home, from whence I came
Taking me from this time and plane
To my past I ask to be sent
Return me to the place I was meant.

In a moment Patty was back in her own time. She placed her hand on her stomach. The baby she had been carrying was gone, and her soul felt empty. "Good-bye my sweetheart. I'm sorry."

* * *

"It's about time you get back here," Cole said from the corner of a dark room. "Carissa, you sure don't carry her as well as Patty did."

"Who--What--Belthazore!"

"I prefer not to go by that name anymore, if you don't mind."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to promise to stay out of the Charmed Ones' lives."

"I don't know if you are aware of what just--"

"I know exactly what just happened, and I am the reason that it did happen."

"And how did you decide that all the honor went to you. I believe that it was my plan."

"Tell me. Did you see the Charmed Ones when you attacked?"

"Yes. Why? It's not like they even tried to hurt a hair on my head."

"Exactly. They were told to leave you alone."

"Why?"

"So that their place in time wouldn't change."

"And what do I have to do?"

"Well, your smarter than I thought. You have to stay out of the lives of the Charmed Ones. And that includes Pamela staying out of their lives."

"Pamela. I like that name."

"Do you agree?"

"I agree that when my child is born in three months that we will stay away from the Charmed Ones, but I can't help it if the Charmed Ones come after us."

"Fine, but that child shall not know who she was."

"But what if she wants to know."

"Like you'd tell her the truth."

"Why Belthazore. You say that sounding like you like them. Oh, that's right. You do. Traitor."

"We'll see who they are calling a traitor if I tell someone that you stole Patty Halliwell's baby and have no evil intentions."

"How do you know that?"

"You forget. I can go to the future. I know that you never tell her that she's not yours, and that you raise her without any magic involved," Cole was guessing. Sure he had looked in on her in the present, but he had never gone into the future.

"Fine. Stay out of my life, and I will stay out of yours!" she yelled in frustration.

"That's all I asked for. Oh, a little warning--"

"Now what, Belthazore?"

"The Charmed Ones will know if your daughter decides to invade the family."

"How?"

"Just don't let her try, and we won't have to worry about it."

"Fine, just get out of here!"

"My pleasure."

May 3, 2001

Dear Diary,

I went to the attic today alone to look at the Book of Shadows. It doesn't look right, and I can't get the spells to work. I don't understand why. I am even having a hard time using my own power.

I knocked a glass of the kitchen cabinet today, and I tried to freeze it. No luck! I had glass all over the floor to pick up. It was a good glass too.

Maybe I just need to get some rest.

Prue