Note: Sorry, guys, you know that it usually doesn't take that long for me to update, but I was out of town for the holiday (last Thursday was a holiday in Brazil).

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Paige takes a silk blouse from the closet and throws it angrily on her bed. What's wrong with them? Why this need to play with fire? A miniskirt lands atop of the blouse. Isn't that enough that evil is constantly chasing us, teasing, enticing? Do we have to go after it, too?

A knock on the door interrupts the course of her thoughts, startling her; Paige spins around and is deeply surprised to see Cole standing at the door. She would've expected Piper, or Phoebe. Leo, maybe. But Cole? She frowns and gives him an inquisitive look.

For a moment, Cole just stands there, with his hands in his pockets, looking as uncomfortable as one could possibly be, until Paige sighs heavily and says, with a note of impatience:

"Yes, Cole?"

"Look," he says, "about the trial..."

"Cole," she says, cutting him short, "I have a date in less than one hour, I really don't have the time to talk about that now."

As he doesn't show any signs of leaving, she rolls her eyes and points at the corridor behind him, saying:

"So, would you please...?"

Cole follows her gesture, chews his lower lip for a moment and actually considers dropping the subject. But instead he clears his throat and turns to her again:

"Listen, Paige, I know you feel that we've been through this before, but..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she says, sharply, while turning her attention back to her clothes, but the way she stiffens tells Cole that he's just touched an exposed nerve.

"When I started working with demons again," he pursues, gently, "you were the only who noticed it right away. If the others had listened to you then, things might have turned out differently."

Without a word, Paige slowly turns around and faces him, surprised by his insight.

"I gave you one hell of a time back then," Cole adds.

"Well, it wasn't really you," she says, in a low voice. "It was the Source."

Cole shifts his weight from one foot to the other, feeling uneasy. He and Paige were never very fond of each other: if on one side haunting her was part of the Source's plans, on the other Cole can't help but think that he may have enjoyed seeing her squirm.

"Come on in," she says, cutting off his musings.

Cole gives her an uncertain look, then takes a shy step in. Paige sits on the edge of her bed, and motions him to sit on a chair.

"Listen," she says, "when you and Phoebe came back from the Underworld we all agreed to leave the past behind and start fresh. You don't need to go over this again: it's all in the past."

"I know," says Cole. "But you see, fresh start or not, Leo and I have talked about that. And, well," -- he shrugs -- "Piper and I spend a lot of time alone in this house, it's not like we could avoid the subject forever: eventually we had to work it out, too."

Cole takes a deep breath and bursts out:

"I never apologized to you."

"Do you want to?" she asks, all the more surprised.

"I do," he says. "I'm sorry, Paige," he adds and, even if the words don't exactly roll of his tongue, they sound sincere.

"Apologies accepted," Paige says, softly.

The remain silent for a while, both feeling sort of awkward, until she says:

"But that doesn't mean I'll support this weird idea of yours." -- Cole opens his mouth, but she holds up her hand -- "No, Cole, listen: it was sweet of you to try and work things out; don't think that I don't appreciate it. I'm not very good at this 'all in the past' thing, and it means a lot that you wanna make up. But, you see, if I had been more emphatic and stood up for my opinion back then, maybe we could've stopped you before it was too late. So, don't ask me to support your meddling with demonic affairs, cause I won't, old friend or not."

Realizing that her words have sounded harsher than she intended, Paige softens her voice before continuing:

"I'm doing this for your sake, too, and I'll be glad when you guys come back from trollville tomorrow, all safe and sound, but, honestly, I wish none of you were going there at the first place."

She glances at her watch and adds, almost unwillingly:

"Now, I'm sorry, but I really need to go and take a shower if I am to be ready when my date arrives."

She stands up, and Cole does the same. Paige hesitates, then takes one step forward and kisses him lightly on the cheek before taking the robe that was lying on the bed and leaving the room before he has a chance to say anything. After she's gone, Cole still stands in the middle of the room, bewildered, until he hears Phoebe's voice coming from the door.

"So," she says, "how was it?"

Cole looks at her, standing at the doorway with Ben in her arms.

"Hum, okay," he says, walking towards them. "I mean, it could've been better, but it could've been worse, too."

He takes Ben from Phoebe's arms, and the baby nestles in his father's arms, cooing happily. Cole smiles and kisses the top of Ben's head; then he says, as he and Phoebe walk out of the room:

"This is odd."

"What?" she asks.

"Family."

"Good odd or bad odd?" Phoebe asks, smirking.

Cole hesitates briefly and says, looking puzzled even as he smiles back at her:

"Good, I guess." He thinks a little more and adds: "But still odd."