Note: Some of you have been asking me if I'll write a sequel to this story, and it finally dawned on me that my readers can't read my mind: so I know that there'll be a sequel, but they won't know unless I tell them! So, rest assured, you people who have been asking me if there'll be a sequel, or if this or that character will make another appearance in the story: as far as I'm concerned, this series can go on forever. Really. All I ask is that you leave a review every now and then so that I know that people are still reading it.
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"I thought you'd rather take a break and let Phoebe drive for a while," Piper said, watching as Cole fastened his seat belt.
"I love my wife," Cole said, while he turned on the engine, "and I love my son. But if I had to sing another chorus along with Bobo the Red Elephant there'd be one less stuffed animal in the world before you could say pop! goes the weasel."
"Well, don't worry: Melinda and I are gonna be as quiet as two mice," Piper said, giggling.
"That will be greatly appreciated, ladies. Thank you very much."
They drove in silence for a while, until Piper cast a hesitant glance towards Cole and said:
"Actually, Cole, there's something I'd like to talk to you about."
"As long as it doesn't rhyme," Cole said, smiling, "I'm all ears."
Instead of speaking, though, Piper started fumbling with the strap of her purse, looking uneasy, and Cole gave her a worried look.
"Piper, is there something wrong?" he asked.
"No. Yes. Kinda." She fidgeted in her seat and finally blurted out: "I'm sorry that I yelled at you last night."
"What?" he uttered, giving her a confused look.
"I was so worried about Leo," Piper said, "and when he said that you should cast the spell to close the portal..." -- she gave Cole a pained look -- "As it turned out, it was for the best, but I didn't know that then: I just wanted Leo to be okay, and I didn't bother to think of the consequences. That was exactly how you ended up in the Source's clutches last time: saving our lives."
"Oh." -- Cole stared at the road ahead, unsure. After more than a year, he trusted Piper, Paige and Leo enough to know that they truly cared about him, but it still perplexed him when they did things like this. Having other people apologize to him was something he still hadn't quite gotten used to.
"Look, Piper," he said, reaching out and patting her hand somewhat awkwardly, "don't be so hard on yourself. Of course you were worried sick about Leo: we all were. And, yes, I was scared to hell about reading that spell, but I would've read it even if you hadn't pushed me to. I mean, you don't really think that I'd let Leo die without even trying to... Oh God, now you're crying!" -- Cole nervously looked at his own car through the rear-view mirror, wondering if he should pull over and let Phoebe and Paige handle this -- "Piper, please don't do that, you know you scare more when you cry than when you yell at me!" -- the frantic look on his face made Piper crack a smile through her tears -- "You Halliwell women, why do you have to cry so often?"
"God, Cole, stop it," Piper said, chuckling and wiping away the few tears that she had shed. "Gee, you've lived with us for almost two years now, yet you still panic at the first sign of tears."
He squinted his eyes and gave her a suspicious look, wondering if the danger was really over. With those Halliwells, you never knew. When he decided that it was safe to start conversation again, he said, cautiously:
"Anyway, you don't have to apologize to me for that." Piper's lips shivered dangerously and he quickly added: "But I forgive you. Okay? I'm not even sure what I'm forgiving you for, but I do, so please don't start crying again."
"I won't," she said, smiling. She reached out and gently squeezed the hand that was resting on the wheel. "See? I'm not crying: relax."
"Uh-hum..." he muttered, warily. "Let's change the subject, then, shall we?"
"No, Cole," she said, seriously. "I really want to apologize to you. I won't cry, I promise, but I want to apologize."
"Piper," he sighed. "You already have. And yes, I see your point, but I don't hold it against you. Really. Okay, so something bad could have happened to me then, but something really bad was already happening to Leo. What should I do, step aside and watch from a safe distant?"
"No," Piper admitted. "No, you'd never do that: you're not the 'step aside and watch' kind."
She watched him with a pensive smile and added:
"You're gonna make one hell of a witch."
"Yeah, yeah..." -- he shifted on his seat, uneasy -- "I wish people would stop reminding me of that."
"Just give it some time," she said, understandingly. "It'll grow on you."
That reminded him of his previous conversation with Phoebe, and he asked:
"How long did it take for you to make your peace with the fact that you're a witch?"
"To be completely honest," Piper said, lying back on her seat and staring at the road ahead, "I'm not very sure I have."
"What!" Cole said, grimacing.
"Oh, don't worry," Piper said, turning her head to look at him. "I doubt it's gonna be like that with you: you're very different from me. You're more like Prue or Paige."
"I am so not like them!" he exclaimed, indignant.
"Oh, you so are like them," she said, amused by his reaction. "Why do you think you and Paige are always picking on each other?"
"Because she's stubborn and willful," he said. "And she has that temper, just like Prue, and..."
"Exactly. That temper. Your temper."
"I'm not..." he started.
"Yeah, right, you're such an easygoing guy!" Piper teased, and the offended look Cole gave her made her burst into laughter.
"Do you know why I rejected magic from day one?" she asked, and Cole raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Because it scared the hell out of me. To be the protector, not the protected one. To be one of a kind, when all my life I had tried so hard to just fit in. To have a destiny, that I might fail to fulfill. But, you see, that was me. Not Prue. Or Paige. Or you."
She smiled and proceeded:
"Right now, you hate the fact that you can't master your powers.Once you do, half of the problem will be over. You just don't like things that you can't control. And," she added with a mischievous smile, "you hate the fact that you're gonna have to learn things that I, Phoebe and Paige already know. You're not used to being the newbie anymore, and it's killing you."
Instead of answering, Cole chewed his lower lip, keeping his eyes on the road, and Piper's heart wrenched at the memory of her headstrong big sister, who hated to concede defeat, too.
"You're gonna be a major headache to Leo," she sighed. "Just like Prue and Paige."
"You and Phoebe break the rules big time, too," he said, stubbornly.
"When we don't agree with them, yes, we do. But you disagree with any rule that you didn't create yourself." -- Cole opened his mouth to retort, but she held up her hand -- "Cole, you do that when we play Monopoly, for crying out loud!"
"If you don't put a limit on how much money one can borrow from the bank..." Piper threw her hands up in the air, in mock despair, and he sighed: "Fine, point taken."
Cole tapped his fingers on the wheel, pondering his thoughts for a while.
"Suppose you're right," he finally said. "Do you, uh, actually think I'm gonna make a good witch?"
"I'm sure that you will," she said, smiling. "Specially if you're wise enough to learn from the mistakes that I, Prue, Phoebe and Paige have already made."
"I don't think I can memorize that much information," he said, smirking, "it's quite a long list."
"Another smart remark," she said, smacking his arm playfully, "and I won't tell you about the day Prue cast a truth spell on us."
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"Snooping, Walfrid?!?"
The Elder turned around from the window with a start and faced his peer, who was standing before him with her hands on her hips and a mischievous glint in her dark eyes.
"Valérie, you startled me!" he said. Regaining his wits, the chubby, bald man added: "And I wasn't snooping; I was just checking up on them."
"I see," Valérie said, smiling as she walked past him and watched as Piper told Cole how she had finally stood up to her abusive boss while under the truth spell.
She lowered her hood, whose softly glowing white color contrasted strongly with her black skin, and added, calmly:
"So, it seems that the decision was taken off our hands."
"In a way, I'm glad it was," Walfrid sighed, standing by her side and watching as Cole laughed heartedly. "Between Julius and Azhar, I'm afraid pigs would fly before we reached an agreement."
"Probably," Valérie said, chuckling slightly. "Now, if you're done checking up on Piper and Cole, can we take a look at the other car? I'd like to see the baby."
Walfrid waved his hand towards the window and the image immediately changed, showing Ben chewing one of Mr. Floppy's ears and watching the road through the window, while Phoebe and Paige chatted.
"A Halliwell and a Turner..." Walfrid said. "We should've seen it coming."
"Yes, definitely," Valérie said with a smile. "I guess falling for people they weren't supposed to be with is in their blood. Where's Leo, by the way?"
"I think one of his other charges called right after we dismissed him."
They watched the scene before their eyes in silence for a few minutes, until Valérie brought up the question that was on the mind of every Elder that morning:
"Do you think he can handle Cole?"
"If he doesn't, I'm afraid no one can," Walfrid sighed. He turned to Valérie with a smile and added: "But I trust he can. I know that some of our peers disapprove the unorthodoxy of his methods, but I for one wish we had more Whitelighters like Leo."
They turned towards the window again as they heard Ben squeal, and smiled at the sight of him waving cheerfully at a cow that stood beside the road.
"He respects Cole, and truly cares about him," Walfrid proceeded, "and it seems to me that it goes both ways. Yes, I think he can control Cole... as much as a anyone can control a Turner, anyway."
"What about her?"
"You mean, Phoebe?" Walfrid asked innocently, causing Valérie to raise an impatient eyebrow.
"Oh... her," he sighed. "Oh well, I don't know."
He waved his hand towards the window again and the image faded out.
"Benjamin didn't mention her last night," he said.
"Do you honestly think he won't?"
Walfrid shrugged and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"Oh, Walfrid!..." Valérie sighed. "He will, eventually. You know he will; we all know. And then, what are we going to do? What's more, what are we going to say to Cole? That he's supposed to save strangers, but not his own mother?"
"Valérie, she's a demoness!" Walfrid exclaimed, shocked. "She's been hunting us down and slaying our kind for almost one thousand years now, how can you..."
"I'm not standing up for her," Valérie said, holding up her hands. "But Benjamin and Cole will be soon enough, trust me."
"I don't wanna lose another witch because of our ineptness in dealing with her," she said, bitterly. "Last time, we were taken by surprise; let's not make the same mistakes this time."
"Maybe," Walfrid said, hopefully, "we won't have to do anything, after all. She's a demoness; demons are always getting killed, you know."
"She's been around for more than nine hundred years for a reason," Valérie said, waving her head. "She's powerful, and she's clever. I'm afraid the only witches that would have the power to vanquish her are the very ones we're trying to spare from a confrontation with her."
"What about other demons?" Walfrid offered. "They have been fighting against each other a whole lot more since the Source was vanquished. One of them might kill her; actually, she may be dead as we speak."
"We should be so lucky," Valérie said, without much enthusiasm. "No, Walfrid, we can't count on others to do our job. Because looking after our witches is our job and, if we can't do that, what good are we?"
"No good," Walfrid sighed. He gave her a helpless look and asked: "So, where does that leave us?"
"I wish I knew, Walfrid," Valérie sighed. "I wish I knew."