The Hope of Destiny
Part I of SHIMMER: An AU

Cole Turner was not having a good day. He had been late for work because of an accident. He had lost a case due to a technicality. He had come home to discover that some idiot trying to put in a swimming pool, complete with sauna and Jacuzzi, had accidentally severed the electrical wires and his block had no power.

Sometimes he wondered why he bothered to live as a mortal. They were just so inconvenienced so often. Of course, then he would remember the alternative and stopped grumbling.

But there was no way he was going to sit at home in the dark. There was still enough natural light to see, but it was fading fast, so Cole quickly changed and left. He had heard one of the interns raving about this club – the name 'P3' sounded about right – and he decided to give it a try.


"Ooo, check out the hot guy by the wall," Prue Halliwell said, sliding into the seat next to her youngest sister.

"Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Incredibly-Gorgeous?" Phoebe asked, following her sister's gaze . . . not that her own hadn't already been resting there.

"Yep." Prue gave him the once-over. "Nice taste," she said approvingly.

"Expensive taste," added Phoebe, who had an eye for that kind of thing. "Look at his clothes, they're all designer labels." Then, worried about the look Prue was giving him, she added defensively, "I saw him first."

"Did not!" Prue protested.

"Did too. Who do you think I've been watching all evening?"

"Ah-ha! Thought so!" Prue exclaimed and Phoebe realized she had been set up. Turning back to her sister, the elder Halliwell said, "But don't worry about me being competition. He's checking you out, you know."

Phoebe tried not to blush. "No, he's not," she protested, strictly a token gesture. She had been thinking the same thing, although was still a little concerned that it was only in her head that a rich, successful, handsome man would be checking her out. It had been entirely too long since she was in the dating game.

"Yes he is," Prue said and that was that, as far as she was concerned.. "Now I'm going to go so he can come over here." True to her word, Prue took off.

Prue was right; he was extremely hot. He noticed Phoebe staring at him and grinned. Phoebe smiled flirtatiously back. He finished his drink and then made his way towards her.

Before acknowledging her, he caught the bartender's attention. "Scotch," he ordered, sitting down on the stool beside Phoebe. "I'm Cole," he said to Phoebe when his drink came. He left a fairly large tip, Phoebe noticed. She filed that fact in the back of her mind for later reference.

"Phoebe," she answered.

"Phoebe," he repeated, sounding like he was trying out the name and the end results were pleasing. "So Phoebe," he said her name again, and Phoebe decided that she really liked the way he said it, "at the risk of sounding like I'm so pathetic that I have to resort to using old, corny pick-up lines, can I buy you a drink?"

"Don't worry," Phoebe assured him. "You don't come off sounding pathetic."

"That's good," Cole said, with a wry grin. "So does that mean I can buy you something to drink?"

"No."

"No?" Cole looked so surprised at the supposed rejection that Phoebe had to fight to keep herself from laughing. He was a man with confidence, that much was evident.

"I mean, there's no sense in you wasting your money buying me a drink. I get them for free."

"How do you manage that?" Cole asked quizzically.

"My sister owns the club."

"Oh." Cole looked duly impressed. "So Phoebe, the owner's sister, if I can't buy you a drink, can I at least have this dance? And I'm warning you," he quickly added, "I don't think my fragile ego can bare being shot down again by you."

"Well then," Phoebe said, "if that's the case, then I guess that I'll just have to say yes."

"I was hoping that would be your answer," Cole said, smiling, as he led Phoebe out to the dance floor.


Cole had made a good choice. P3 had good music, wasn't so crowded that you that you couldn't move and, most importantly, wasn't inhabited by mostly thirteen year olds who, trying to look older, had enough makeup on to look like cheap hookers. No, P3 had been a good choice. He would have to go there again.

The music was good, but Cole didn't much feel like dancing just yet. Actually, he never much felt like dancing, but would put aside his preferences when he was with a girl who liked to dance. Currently he was off to the side, sipping the scotch in his hand, checking out the other occupants of the club.

His eyes settled on a gorgeous girl sitting by the bar. She was wearing a short red dress that, although showing a lot, still left some to the imagination, just the way Cole liked it. He looked her over. Red was definitely her colour.

A friend went over to join her. If Cole wasn't mistaken, and he rarely was, they were talking about him and weren't being too subtle about it either. At least they weren't openly pointing, he could give them that much, but the stares in his direction weren't much of an improvement.

The next time he looked, the girl's friend had left again, and the girl was staring rather obviously at him. He smiled suddenly and she returned it. Yes, she was definitely interested in him.

He downed the rest of his drink and went over to meet her. Her name was Phoebe and Cole had been right; she was interested.

The danced for almost an hour straight, unable to exchange more than a few trite words over the music. She was a good dancer, which could probably be explained by her statements of being the owner's sister, if that was in fact true. Personally, he couldn't see why a girl would make up such a claim, but he knew some people said weird things when trying to impress a man – and most of the time the man in question was himself. Finally giving up on dancing, completely exhausted, they collapsed on stools by the bar. Phoebe ordered water while Cole stuck to his scotch.

"So what do you do?" Phoebe asked as they were waiting for their drinks. Cole had been expecting the question.

"I do lots of things," Cole said, teasing her. "For example, right now I'm sitting at a bar. A few minutes ago, I was dancing. I also sleep a lot, and sometimes I will eat."

Phoebe rolled her eyes, but could barely hide her smile, just as Cole had hoped would happen. "You know that's not what I meant," she said.

"I know," Cole said. "Actually, I'm an ADA – Assistant District Attorney," he clarified in case she didn't know what acronym stood for.

"Wow." Phoebe seemed to be impressed. "That's interesting."

Cole made a face. "Boring's more like it. It isn't nearly as fun as they make it out to be on TV or in the movies. A lot more paperwork and the good guys don't always win."

"Life seldom turns out the way it would on TV," Phoebe said sagaciously. From her tone of voice and the slightly haunted look in her eyes, Cole couldn't help but wonder if she was talking from experience, but he decided not to pursue that line of thought.

"So how 'bout you? What do you do? For a living, I mean," he added so that she wouldn't reciprocate his smart mouth.

"I'm a student," Phoebe told him.

"A student?" he asked, trying not to let the worry seep into his voice.

He must be losing it. She didn't look nearly that young and Cole was usually a decent judge of age, among other things. He didn't rob the cradle. Well, technically speaking, all women he went out with were decades younger than he, but it was hard to find a mortal who had been born in the eighteenth century anymore, especially one who wasn't dying or senile, or dying and senile. But Cole would not go out with girls who were that much younger than his physical age. In addition to the looks he got for it, Cole found girls in their teens and early twenties to be too immature.

"Yeah," Phoebe continued, oblivious to Cole's reaction. "I just went back. I didn't finish college the first time around, but decided I should've. So," she raised her hands in a "what have you" gesture, "here I am."

So he hadn't misjudged her age after all. That was a relief. "I think that's great," Cole said, meaning it too. "I was worried there for a second. I mean, no offense, but you look way too mature to be in college now if you went straight out of high school."

"Too mature?" Phoebe questioned. She didn't seem to be taking it the wrong way, which was good. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"A good thing. Definitely a good thing," Cole said huskily.

"I'm glad," Phoebe murmured.

Their drinks came and Cole pulled out his wallet to pay, Phoebe said, "Don't bother. It's on the house."

"What?" Cole asked, a bit startled.

"Have you forgotten already?" Phoebe asked, a smile playing on her lips. "I'm the owner's sister, remember?"

"I'd forgotten," Cole admitted. In truth, he hadn't actually believed her in the first place. Women had lied to impress him before and he in turn had done it to other women.

"Phoebe, there you are." It was Phoebe's friend from earlier. She noticed Cole and asked slyly, "Well, aren't you going to introduce me?"

Cole couldn't interpret the look Phoebe gave her friend. They seemed to be close, however. "Prue," Phoebe said, "this is Cole. Cole, this is Prue."

"Nice to meet you," Cole said, holding out his hand. Prue took it and they shook.

"You too," she said, her eyes sparkling mischievously. She gave Phoebe another indecipherable look, which the latter pointedly ignored.

"Prue's my sister," Phoebe explained.

"Oh." That explained the looks. It was an old-fashioned case of sibling rivalry. Or perhaps sibling bickering – Cole couldn't decide which. "Then you must be the owner of this club."

"Nah," Prue said. "That's our other sister, Piper. She's not here right now."

"Anymore siblings gonna turn up?" Cole asked Phoebe.

"No, it's just me, Piper and Prue."

Phoebe, Prue and Piper. "Suddenly the name makes a lot more sense," Cole commented, mostly to himself.

"What's that?" Prue asked, looking mildly confused.

"P3," Cole said. "Phoebe, Piper and Pure. That's why you called it that, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Phoebe said, but she said it a little oddly, making Cole wonder if there was more to the story. He frowned almost imperceptively, looked carefully at her, but didn't say anything else. Neither Phoebe nor her sister seemed to have noticed.

"Anyways," Prue said, turning her attention back to Phoebe. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm going now. I have a shoot early tomorrow morning and need to get some sleep."

Phoebe's eyes flickered to Cole. "I'm not ready to go yet," she argued.

"But Phoebe, I have to go now." There was an unmistakable whine in Prue's voice, and Cole was glad that he had chosen the sister he had. Whining grated on his nerves.

"I can give you a ride home, Phoebe," offered Cole.

"Could you?" Phoebe looked at him hopefully. "That would be great.

"Well, if you're sure," said Prue, who didn't sound nearly as enthusiastic about the idea as her sister did.

"I'm sure. It won't be problem."

"Okay, then," Prue said, reluctantly. "I'll see you tomorrow," she added to Phoebe.

A new song came on and Phoebe perked up. "I love this one. Let's dance!" She dragged Cole back onto the dance floor.


They didn't leave until well after closing time, they were having so much fun.

"C'mon," Cole said at last. "We should probably get going."

Phoebe looked around. There were less than a dozen people left, and that was including the people who worked there. "You're right," she agreed. "But how're we getting home?"

"I'm driving, remember?"

"You're not driving," Phoebe said firmly. "You've had too much to drink."

Cole seemed to be more amused than anything else at that observation. "I'm not drunk," he stated.

He wasn't, either. In spite of all the scotch he had consumed over the course of the evening, which was a considerable amount, at least to Phoebe, he still seemed sober. However, it was better to be safe than sorry and Phoebe wasn't fond of the idea of Cole driving after having so many drinks when it was just as easy for her to drive, having only had water to drink all night.

"Maybe not," Phoebe allowed, "but you've still had too much to drive."

"Fine," Cole said, giving in to Phoebe much easier than she had expected him to, "then you can drive." He handed her the keys to his car and together they left the club and walked to Cole's car, which was parked a few blocks away.

"Nice car," Phoebe said when she saw it. It was an understatement. Cole's car was very nice, and very expensive. She supposed she should have expected it by now; everything of Cole's seemed to scream expensive, yet tasteful.

"Thanks," Cole said, getting into the passenger side.

"Where do you live?" Phoebe asked.

Before he would tell her, Cole wanted to know, "How're you going to get home if you drive me home first?"

"I'll call a taxi," Phoebe said. She had already thought of that.

"Are you sure?" Cole asked. "You can always go home and I can call a cab from there."

"No, that's okay," Phoebe said. She had the feeling Cole wouldn't call a taxi but would drive home himself, intoxicated as he was, if she took his suggestion.

"Okay then," Cole said. He gave her directions to his apartment. When they got there, he started to unbuckle his seatbelt, then paused, asking, "Do you want to come up for a cup of coffee? Before you call a taxi, I mean."

It took Phoebe a second to realize Cole hadn't really asked her for coffee. A few years ago, she would have said yes without the slightest hesitation, but since she had become a witch, she had matured a little. Prue would say very little, but the truth was the baby of the family had grown up at last.

Phoebe wanted to say no, she should have said no, and if it had been anyone other than Cole, she would have said no. But somehow Cole seemed different than most guys she met. As clichéd as it sounded, she felt like she had know Cole for a lot longer than a few hours.

"Yes," she found herself saying.

They didn't actually drink any coffee and Phoebe never did call that taxi.

The End
Sunday, January 28, 2001
Revised Sunday, August 04, 2002

Not much to say, really. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the prologue. Charmingal - yes, I am continuing the series with Guilt and The Piper's Song. The new one should be out in a few days. Heather - you're in the next part . . . unless you would rather be a demon, and in that case, you'll be a couple stories away. Please write and/or review to tell me. Amanda O. - I think someone else has used the title Shimmer but as that's the new official name for Cole/Phoebe 'shippers, I thought it fit. Thanks also goes out to Lizzy and Sun-chan, who also reviewed. To everyone, please review this part as well. I love reviews. They help me write. Really. I mean it. Trinity Day

Heidi 01-29-2001 06:08 AM Great story. Can't wait to read the next part. Piper Mary Cherry Milano ( Signed Review ) 01-29-2001 05:28 AM That was excellent, I loved the last part, too...

Note 2: Sure, the day after I upload chapters on ff.n for the very first time, I have to change it. These are the two reviews that were made for the other part. Thanks, Piper Mary Cherry Milano and Heidi!