Warning! Note that the rating has changed to PG-13. I was thinking of this whole Cole/Source thing and decided I needed some P/C scenes to cheer me up. That's the beauty of being the author. :-)))
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Tuesday evening
"Hi, husband."
"Hi, wife." -- Cole raises his head from the papers he's been working on and smiles at her -- "Where's our son?"
"Bathed, nursed and tucked in," says Phoebe, circling the dinner table and standing behind him, gently massaging his shoulders and neck.
"Such a good mother..." he says, smiling as his sore muscles begin to relax under her touch. Only now Cole realizes how tense he was, having worked on the case for the entire afternoon.
"Yes," she whispers, leaning down so that her lips are close to his ear, "and now I was thinking of being a good wife, too." -- she undoes the first button of his shirt, slips one hand inside it and starts to rub his chest -- "A very good one..."
Cole closes his eyes and sighs in contentment as her fingers find his nipple. He knows they're home alone and, since Ben is already sleeping... Then he thinks of the case that's going to trial on the day after tomorrow, feeling a pang of guilt.
"As tempting as it sounds," he says, opening his eyes and holding her wrist, preventing her from going any further, "I'm drowning in paperwork here, and if I can't put these notes into an understandable order now, by tomorrow I won't be able to make any sense out of them."
"Well," she says giving an amused look towards the cardboards, paper sheets and post-it notes spread all over the table, but still toying with his nipple, "you do have some mess here. I never knew you're so disorganized."
"I, uh..." his voice trails off as she starts nibbling his earlobe.
"Are you sure you can't finish it tomorrow morning?" she whispers against his skin.
Cole groans in response, but still manages to stop her other hand a couple of inches above his belt.
"I wish I could," he moans.
Seeing that he really means it, Phoebe stops her onslaught. She withdraws her hands, wraps her arms around his neck and plants a sound kiss on his cheek.
"So," she says, "you're in this much trouble, huh?"
"I'm afraid so," he sighs. "Even I didn't know I was so disorganized. I always had an assistant to save me from myself."
Phoebe casts a look at the piles of papers of all colors and sizes that cover most of the table.
"Baby, why don't you keep all your notes together? A simple notepad would do."
"I don't know," he says, frowning slightly. "I started all nice and organized, with cardboards; then I decided I needed a notepad, and before I knew I was writing on whatever was at hand."
"I see," says Phoebe, reaching out and picking up a credit card receipt with a few words written on the back.
"I was at the drugstore when I had this idea," he says, shrugging, when she waves the receipt in front of his face with a smile. "I knew that if I didn't write it down right then, I'd forget it."
"I'll tell you what," says Phoebe, straightening up, "let's eat something, and I'll help you with your notes after dinner. Just don't mention it to the others," she adds, sheepishly. "I know this isn't magic, but still Leo could get upset."
"I won't," says Cole, standing up. "Thank you, baby."
"You're very welcome," she says, taking his hand as they leave the room. "Besides, I have my own selfish reasons to help you," she adds, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "My hopes are that, by joining forces, we'll finish your agenda in time to get back to mine."
"I'll be more than glad to do whatever is on your agenda," says Cole, smiling.
"So," she says, "what's for dinner? And where's everybody, by the way?"
"Piper and Leo are at the club, and Paige had a date, so I was in charge of dinner tonight."
"I see. Have you ordered Chinese or pizza?"
"I was in the mood for some Egg Foo Yong."
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Tuesday night
Phoebe and Cole are cuddled under the covers, both feeling pleasantly drowsy. The baby monitor rests on the nightstand and Ben's crib has been moved to Paige's bedroom earlier.
"It's been a while," Phoebe sighs, smiling.
"In our own bed? Indeed," says Cole, lazily running his hand up and down her naked back. "Not that I don't like doing it in the shower..."
"Yes, you definitely seemed to be enjoying yourself last time," she says, giggling.
Cole smiles and lets his hand slid to her side, tickling the sensitive spot under her ribs and making her jump in surprise and slap his chest.
"You, too, seemed to be having quite a good time," he says. Then, in a more serious manner: "But I'd rather not have to be sneaking around with you, like two horny teenagers."
"I know," she says. "It's about time Ben has his own bedroom."
"Not to mention that the manor isn't becoming any less crowded. Quite on the contrary. When Melinda's born..." -- Cole promptly stops as he sees worry spreading over her face.
"Baby," he says, "I'm not saying that we should move out again. I just..." -- he sighs, frustrated -- "Shouldn't there be an easier way?"
"Last time we took the easy way..." she starts.
"Okay, maybe not that way," he says, gently placing his fingers on her lips. "But there's gotta be some way. A way that doesn't include five grown ups and two children sharing a house with only three bedrooms. And two bathrooms, for crying out loud."
"Cole..."
"Look," he says, changing position to better look her in the eyes, "all I'm saying is, let's bring up the subject and see what your sisters and Leo have to say."
"They've already spoken their minds," she says, "when we first moved out."
"So, no talking about moving out, but about how to make the cohabitation easier for all the parts involved." Seeing that she's still uneasy, Cole adds: "And we won't take any decisions concerning this matter unless all five of us agree. One single 'nay' and the motion shall be defeated."
He touches the tip of her nose and says, smiling tentatively:
"See, I'm willing to give Paige full powers to meddle with my life, just to make sure nothing goes wrong this time."
This finally makes Phoebe crack a smile, and Cole's relieved to feel the tension leave her shoulders.
"Sorry, baby," she says, kissing his chin. "I didn't mean to sound paranoid, I just..."
"You didn't," he says, touching her face. "You just don't want to go through that again and -- believe me -- neither do I. And none of us will, I swear."
He holds her tighter, burying his face on her hair and marveling -- as always -- at how right it feels, being here with her.
"We're good," he says, "we belong here."
After a few moments he smiles and adds, sliding his hand down to the small of her back: "A little wicked, maybe, but still..."
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Tuesday late night
"Cole?"
"Hum?"
Cole keeps his eyes closed and cuddles tighter with her, his face buried in her neck, unwilling to move, but Phoebe rolls around to face him.
"Tell me a story," she asks in her baby voice.
"You want a bedtime story?" Cole asks, raising his eyebrows in amusement.
"Sort of," she says, smiling. "I wanna hear about the time you fought a winged dragon."
"Oh, that..." -- he chuckles and passes his arm around her as she snuggles with him, resting her head on his chest -- "Well, I was fourteen and Sarsour was sixteen; and we thought that it'd be fun to mess with the head of a dragon, by taunting him and shimmering in and out around him."
"May I ask whose brilliant idea was this?" Phoebe asks, deeply amused.
"It was Sarsour's idea," says Cole, smiling. "But in his defense I must say that I wasn't hard to convince."
When she starts giggling, he promptly joins her, albeit saying:
"Hey, we were young and foolish!"
"So," Phoebe asks when she stops giggling, "what happened then?"
"Well, we did some research before going after our dragon, which was good. But you see, teenagers are teenagers, half demons or not: we didn't have much patience, so it was... quite a quick research. And that was bad. Very bad."
"Why?" Phoebe asks, and Cole smiles as he sees the glint of excitement in her eyes.
"It turned out that it's red winged dragons that can't shimmer. Black winged dragons, on the other hand, are very fast shimmerers."
"Oh my God," she whispers.
"You can say that again, baby. I taunted him for a while, got him really pissed off, then shimmered out, and imagine my surprise when I turned around and saw him standing right beside me, hissing at me."
"What did you do then?" she asks, totally caught by the story.
"What else could I do? I shimmered back to where we'd started, he followed me, and I fought him."
"And you beat him," she says, smiling.
"And I beat him," he says, smiling back at her. "But only after what felt like the longest hour of my life."
"Where was Sarsour?"
"He was shimmering around us, shrieking and doing a pretty good job confusing the dragon, although I doubt it was intentional: he was just scared to death, and I can't blame him. I thought I was going to wet my pants when I saw that dragon breathing fire on me."
"Couldn't he have gone ask for help?"
"Even if I managed to catch the dragon's attention long enough for Sarsour to shimmer out without the dragon following him, help would've been hard to find. Even grown up demons avoid crossing a winged dragon's path."
"So, what? They'd just let you die?"
"Well, my mother would've come," says Cole, and Phoebe senses the muscles of the arm that surrounds her tensing up slightly as he mentions his mother. "And I'm sure she'd have beat that dragon with much more ease than I did. But between her and a twenty-foot-high winged dragon, it's hard to say whose wrath we feared the most."
He remains silent for a moment, seeming lost in darker memories, but before Phoebe can question him he turns to her again and says, smiling:
"Anyway, the fear we felt then was enough to keep us out of trouble for some time."
"How long?" she asks.
"Two weeks to heal the bruises and burns, one week to convince ourselves that we had in fact handled it pretty well, and we're back to chasing goblins."
"You know," she says, fondling his face, "the two of you seem to have been more wicked than evil: not so different from any human teenager."
"Don't delude yourself, Phoebe," he says, his smile fading. "By the time I fought that dragon, I had already done my first killing."
"At the age of fourteen?" she asks, shocked.
"Actually, twelve," he says, somberly.
Not knowing what to say, she kisses him gently and cuddles with him. They remain silent for a moment and then she remembers the other thing Sarsour said that day that got her attention.
"Baby?" she asks, raising her face again.
"Yes?"
"While I was coming back with the stuff you needed to sign your, uh... contract, I heard Sarsour mention someone you both used to know."
"Uh, I don't recall that."
"He was saying 'so you have never again seen...', and then he stopped."
Before Cole can answer this, they both hear Paige knocking at the door.
"Phoebe? Cole?" she calls out.
"Just a second," Cole promptly says, jumping off the bed and reaching out for his robe, while Phoebe sits up, holding the covers over her naked body and watching as he walks to the door and opens it... a little too quick. Almost as if he's thankful for the interruption, she thinks.
"I hope you have enjoyed the privacy provided by our absence," she says, giving the clothes scattered on the floor a knowing look, "but it's past midnight, and I have to work tomorrow, so if you could bring Ben's crib back to your bedroom..."
"I'll get him," says Cole, already walking past her.
"If I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow, I'd be glad to baby-sit..." says Paige, seeing Phoebe bite her lower lip as Cole leaves the bedroom.
"What?" says Phoebe, turning to her, slightly startled. "No, sweetie, that's okay, I was just wondering..." -- she sighs -- "Never mind."
She gives Paige a reassuring smile and adds:
"Go have some sleep. In fact," she adds, yawning, "I should follow my own advice."
"Okay," says Paige, smiling, "good night."
"Good night," says Phoebe.
Paige leaves and Cole enters the room, carefully pushing the wheeled crib in front of him. Phoebe won't say anything, afraid to wake the baby up, and Cole knows that. And she knows he knows. So, when he raises his head from the crib and smiles at her she just smiles back at him, and when he slips under the covers she cuddles with him, taking a mental note to come back to this subject later.
