Note: So, now I can say it without giving the story away: Mary Hines planted the seed of this story in my mind more than a year ago, but what finally made it sprout was Jolynn's story, "Cole's Resurrection". Thank you, Jolynn, for a wonderful story. :-)

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"You... uh... how..." Cole stammered, staring at his father in shock and confusion. Finally, he turned to Leo, saying accusatorily: "You said they had been judged!"

"They were," Leo said.

He saw the suspicious look in Cole's eyes and added, defensively:

"Look, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you the whole story back then: I was fading away, I couldn't think straight. I had heard about Frederick and Anthony, I remembered it when I read the story, but I only made the connection between them and your power when the girls were chanting, and..."

"What!" Cole said, shocked. "That power? It was their power? Damn it, Leo, you said it was a good power, that the Elders had sent it to me because..."

"Son, it is a good power," Benjamin said, placing his hand on Cole's shoulder and making him turn towards him again. "It wasn't Frederick's, and it wasn't Anthony's. But it wasn't sent by the Elders, either. Remember, you were incommunicado here. No magic from outside could have reached you, not even the Elders."

"Who sent it, then?" Cole asked, dumbfounded.

"No one sent it, son," Benjamin explained, patiently. "It was here all the time. In you. The spell just unbound it."

"The spell... No, dad, you're wrong," Cole said. "My powers..."

He hesitated: did his father know what his mother was? Cole's memories of the life he lived before his father was killed were just a blur. Did Benjamin know that his son was -- had been -- half demon? And if he didn't, how would he react when he was told? The idea of seeing fear or disgust in his father's eyes was unbearable, and it took all Cole had to take a deep breath and say, looking right into his father's eyes:

"I had powers, dad, but they were nothing like this one. They were demon powers."

Benjamin opened his mouth to reply, but Cole proceeded, quickly:

"And they weren't bound: they were vanquished. My... demon self no longer exists."

"I had pretty much figured that out, son, after seeing the way you reacted when your powers were unbound," Benjamin said, smiling.

Cole opened his mouth to explain again that those weren't his powers, but his father held up his hand to silence him up.

"And I'm sorry that the powers you inherited from your mother have caused you so much sorrow," he added, gently.

Cole stared at him, dumbfounded, but it was nothing compared to what he felt when his father concluded:

"But I'm talking about the powers you inherited from me."

Benjamin waited patiently as the meaning of his words sank in.

"Dad..." Cole said, warily. "What am I? What are we?"

"Witches, son," Benjamin said, as gently as possible. "We're witches."

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Next thing Cole knew, he was lying on the sofa again, looking up at the very worried faces that leaned over his. He tried to sit up again, but Benjamin's hand was on his shoulder, pushing him back down.

"No, sir," he said, firmly, "that was quite the scare you gave us... twice."

"I just want to sit up," Cole protested.

Seeing Benjamin and Leo exchange a doubtful look, Cole raised himself on his elbow, saying:

"What are the the two of you keeping from me? What's going on?"

He turned to Leo, feeling angry and deceived:

"Did you know what was happening to me? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Cole, calm down, okay? I knew nothing," Leo assured. "I told you, I had heard about Frederick and Anthony's judgement, and about the spell that sent them to that other dimension, but it was decades before we even met. I didn't know the name of the witch that had cast the spell, and I'd never have made the connection between the two of you: there was no mention of a child... or a wife."

"The judgement took place a couple of years before I met my wife," Benjamin explained, and Cole swirled his head towards him, surprised by the tenderness that showed in his father's voice as he mentioned the woman that had killed him.

"Son," Benjamin said, "you've gone through quite an ordeal today; you should lie down for a while. Here," he added, reaching out for a pillow, "put this under your head, but please don't try to sit up just now. I'll tell you everything you want to know, but you need to rest."

The look of love and concern in his father's eyes made Cole feel a bit ashamed of his previous outburst.

"Sure, dad," he said, meekly allowing Phoebe to pull him back down, to rest his head on the pillow that she had placed on her lap, and taking her hand in his own.

"Good," Benjamin said, smiling.

He reached out for his son's free hand, and Cole gladly held his father's hand. He indeed felt spent, and there were worse things than lying in his wife's arms, one hand caught in hers and the other held by his father's, relishing in the heat that came from the crackling fire and knowing that his family was safe and sound. He shifted position slightly and saw that Leo had sat on the couch again, with his arm around Piper, and this one was resting her head on her husband's shoulder. Paige had pulled a chair next to the two seat couch and sat there with Ben, now sound asleep, in her arms.

Cole sighed with something akin to contentment and turned his eyes back to his father, who was sitting on the edge of the coffee table and smiling lovingly at him.

"Now," Benjamin said, "where do you want me to start from?"

Cole bit his lower lip, pondering the question. There were so many things he wanted to know! He looked into Benjamin's eyes, and the words came out of his mouth almost on their own:

"Dad, why did you marry my mother?"

"Because I loved her," Benjamin said, simply. He seemed surprised and a bit amused by the question.

Cole hesitated slightly, then asked:

"When did you find out she was, uh, a demoness?"

"When did I...?" -- Benjamin's eyebrows shot up -- "Son, I always knew what your mother was!"

Now it was time for Cole's eyebrows to raise as high as possible.

"You did??"

"Sure," Benjamin stated. "Did you think your mother had lied to me? Don't you know anything about us?"

"Uh, no," Cole said, still staring at him in confusion. "Mother said..." -- his face crumpled with grief as he forced himself to dig into memories that had been buried for more than a century, so deep that until then he didn't know they were even there -- "She said that you had faked your own death. That we should tell everyone that you were dead, and never mention your name, not even when we were alone, or we'd be putting you in danger."

He didn't notice the hot tears running down his cheeks until Phoebe's gentle hand wiped them away.

"I just... I believed her, what else could I do?" he said, in a choked voice.

Benjamin nodded his head and squeezed the cold hand he held in his a little tighter, with a look of infinite pain in his eyes.

"For several years I went to bed every night hoping that tomorrow would be the day you'd come take us back home, and everything would be fine again. Until it sank in that we weren't just pulling an act: that you'd never come back and... things would never be fine again." -- Cole's voice was little more than a whisper as he finished.

"I'm sorry, son," Benjamin said. "I never expected things to turn out that way, I swear." Then, much to Cole's astonishment, he added: "And neither did your mother."

Seeing the five pairs of very surprised eyes turned towards him, Benjamin sighed and started to tell his story.