Epilogue
Five Years Later
"And that," Cole announced, "is the story of the night Adam was born."
"The rated-G version," Phoebe murmured before she lightly kissed the newborn that she cradled in her arms.
"We'll tell them the full truth when they're older," Cole quietly assured her. He kept his arms locked around the dark-haired three-year old in his lap but still managed to caress his youngest son's soft mat of light brown hair. "I think this one looks more like you. Like Adam."
"We'll see," she considered as she leaned against him and sighed tiredly, "but he could look exactly like you and Ben and I still wouldn't care. All I care is that he's healthy and safe."
"I really saved Mommy with my powers?" Adam asked as he crept toward them from his spot at the foot of the hospital bed.
"Yes, you did," Phoebe smiled at her eldest son and pressed his nose with her fingertip. "You saved me and your daddy."
"Really?" the three-year old suddenly asked as he glanced up at his father.
"Really, Ben," Cole smiled. He then assured the older boy, "Not only that, Adam, but you helped save your aunts, too."
"Aunt Paige too?" Adam questioned suspiciously.
"Her too," Cole chuckled as he tried to reign in Ben who began squirming in his embrace.
"He learns it from you," Phoebe criticized as she carefully unfastened her gown and began to nurse the newborn.
Cole shook his head and insisted, "He loves his Aunt Paige. Don't you, son?"
Adam bobbed his head enthusiastically, "Most of the time she's cool and we have fun when she stays with us and she even lets us"
"Use your powers?" Cole questioned when his son suddenly stopped speaking and wore a crestfallen expression.
"It's posed to be a secret," Adam mumbled, near tears. "She's gonna be mad at me."
Phoebe reached out to him with her free hand and tilted his chin up, "It's okay, baby, Daddy guessed and that means you didn't tell us your secret. Aunt Paige won't be mad at you. I promise."
Cole released his middle son, who remained on his lap, and pulled Adam closer. He kissed the youngster on top of the head and promised, "No one is mad at you, Adam. Not me and not your Aunt Paige. But I think now you know why Aunt Paige wanted to keep it a secret. Right?"
Adam nodded, "Because you and Mommy don't want me using my powers."
As Cole hugged their son, Phoebe explained, "It's not that we don't want you using them, Adam. But only when you're with me or Daddy. When you're a little older, you'll be able to use them more often. Can you understand that?"
Adam mutely nodded and Cole kissed him again. "I'll have a talk with Paige tomorrow," he promised his wife. "Maybe it'll be easier if we're all open about their powers."
"What about Lindy?" Phoebe considered. "You know how badly she wants her powers and when she hears or sees her cousins use theirs"
"You know I adore Melinda," Cole shook his head, "but Piper and Leo are the ones who decided to bind her powers and they're the ones who will have to make her feel better. We can't restrict our sons anymore. They're older and need to use their powers if they're to learn how to control them."
"You're right," she agreed with a sigh. "More complicatedthat's what you predicted our lives would be like the night Adam was born."
He smiled and realized how their decision not to bind their sons' powers constantly came back to haunt them during the past five years. "And now it's three times worse than it was with Tabitha," he whispered.
But Phoebe heard him and she giggled, "I knew you'd get hooked on that show eventually."
"I'm not hooked," he insisted. "I've merely seen every episode a hundred times thanks to your hormonal mood swings. Oh, Cole, it's on in Toronto, can't you go there and tape it for me? Please? It's the one episode I'm missing,'" he mocked. "I should be grateful you didn't send me halfway around the world." He sighed, "There's been no potion invented that I can take to resist those commands."
"I did not command you," she complained, "and if you didn't want to go, you should have said so."
"And be in the doghouse for a month?" he retorted. "I don't think so."
"We don't have a dog," Adam questioned in confusion. "Are we getting a dog?" he asked a bit more excitedly.
"It's just an expression," she responded with a soft smile, "and we are not getting a dog. Are you okay now?" He nodded and crawled off Cole's lap and went to her side. She wrapped her free arm around him and rubbed his back. "I love you, sweetie," she assured him before she told Cole, "You too, I suppose." Cole laughed and she smiled back at him.
Adam gazed at his new brother and wondered, "Why can't you feed him from a bottle like when Ben was little?"
"We will," Phoebe smiled, "when he's a little older. Right now, he needs special milk from me. It's the same milk I gave you and Ben and look how big and strong you both are now."
Cole grinned when Adam smiled proudly but he suddenly realized there was someone crawling away and he quickly tackled the three-year old. "Where do you think you're going, young man?" He proceeded to tickle the youngster who shrieked with delight.
Unfortunately, her son's legs kicked her as he struggled in his father's embrace and Phoebe groaned. "Cole"
Cole immediately apologized and pulled his son away from her. "Are you okay?"
She tried not to grimace and nodded, "Just no wrestling matches on the bed for a while, okay?"
"Okay, Mommy," her son agreed. "Baby's too little, right?"
"That's right, Ben," she smiled back at him, "baby's too little."
"Does baby have powers?" Ben asked as he broke away from his father's grip.
Cole let him sit in the center of the bed between his parents' legs and answered, "Yes, Ben, the baby already has one of his powers."
"Can he shimmer like me?" Adam asked excitedly.
"No," Phoebe shook her head with a smile, "but he can --"
"Can he fly like me?" Ben interrupted as he floated to the ceiling.
"Benjamin Aaron Turner," Phoebe practically shrieked, "you land on this bed right now! What have we told you about using your powers?"
"Only with you or daddy," Adam recited, "or Aunt Piper or Aunt Paige or Uncle Leo if it's an mergency."
As Ben floated down, Cole reached for his son's legs and pulled the child into his arms. He reminded his sons, "That's right. And you never, ever, use your powers when someone else might see."
"I'm sorry, Mommy," Ben tearfully apologized.
Phoebe looked at her heartbroken son, "No, Ben, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm not mad. I just got a little scared, that's all."
But Ben buried his face in Cole's chest so Cole rubbed his back and rocked him, "No one's mad at you, Ben. You know what? We're proud of you that you flew so high." Ben peeked at his father and Cole continued, "Remember how, not too long ago, you couldn't float to the top of the bed? Now you're able to float to the ceiling. That's pretty impressive."
Phoebe smiled at her son and rubbed his arm, "That's right, Ben, you're a big boy now and that means you're growing stronger with your powers but it also means you have to listen to the rules."
"Everybody has to follow the rules," Adam informed his brother. "Even Mommy and Daddy. Isn't that right?"
She caught Cole rolling his eyes and cautiously replied, "That's right, Adam. Even Mommy and Daddy have rules to follow."
"When the mood hits," Cole teased in a low voice.
She stuck her tongue out at him, "I think I'll have a rule-setting meeting with the rest of the family."
"I don't think so," he replied with a wink, "because then I'll have to set some rules for all the little people of this family. And since I'm bigger than everyone else, that means --"
"I'm not little, I'm big," Ben interrupted.
"That's right, Ben," she happily confirmed, "you're a big boy, now."
"I'm free," he nodded and carefully used his second hand to hold up three fingers on his first hand.
Cole chuckled, kissed his son, and murmured, "My big boy."
"Tell me bout the night I was borned," Ben requested.
Cole glanced at Phoebe, "Mommy's very tired right now and it's a long story. How about if I tell it to you tomorrow at bedtime."
"But you told Adam's story," Ben pouted.
"It's okay, honey," Phoebe assured Cole, "I have to finish nursing the baby anyway."
"I wonder who he gets that from," Cole pointedly told her. Phoebe merely shrugged in mock innocence and glanced around the room and he sighed. "Okay," he reluctantly agreed and focused on Ben, "but you have to stay in my lap." Ben nodded and Cole glanced at his eldest son who lay snuggled next to Phoebe. "Okay, it all started one night, a little more than three years ago. It was raining and Mommy and I were in the kitchen of Aunt Piper's house."
"Was I there too?" Adam asked with interest.
Phoebe laughed, "Yes, you were playing with your cousin Lindy in her room and Aunt Paige was watching you."
"Or so we thought," he muttered. "Mommy and I were arguing with --"
"Cole" Phoebe said in her tone of warning.
"C'mon, Phoebe," he said, "we know how it ends, I'm just telling them how it began."
"Well, I'm going to make sure you tell it right," she declared, "or else --"
"Was there a bad demon?" Ben interrupted.
"Yes, there was, Ben," Cole replied. "A very, very, bad demon," he growled. The boys giggled and he smiled at his wife who smiled in return. "Remember how we told you about Hasoaf and what a very bad demon he was?" Both boys nodded and he continued, "Well, this was another very bad demon and his name was Garoon and he --"
"That's a silly name," Ben interrupted.
"He was also a silly demon," Phoebe lied after a quick glance to her husband. Garoon had been anything but silly and Phoebe averted her eyes as she flashed back to that time.
"I love you," Cole emphatically told her. She cleared her throat but nodded silently and he continued, "Garoon thought he could take your cousin Lindy away from her mommy and daddy and --"
"But you stopped him, right?" Ben interrupted again.
Cole sighed at the interruption but he noticed Phoebe's timid smile and he smiled back at her. "He's just like you, I can't get a word in edgewise," he complained. Her smile broadened and he turned back to his son. "Yes, Ben," he patiently responded, "we stopped him and it was just in time because you, young man, arrived on the scene later that night."
"I'm glad, Daddy," Ben nodded, pleased.
"Me too, Ben," Cole replied as he wrapped his arms tightly around his son. One day he'd have to tell his son how close they came to actually losing him.
"But not now," Phoebe assured Cole.
"Reading my mind again?" he smiled.
"As if I could," she grinned.
"You don't need special powers to do that," he informed her. "It happens because --"
"We're so connected," she finished for him. "You do the same thing and you know itDo you"
"What?" he quietly asked when she stopped speaking. "Phoebe? You can ask me anything, you know that."
Phoebe shrugged, "I know you don't like talking about it."
"Talking about what?" But he recognized the look in her eyes and murmured, "That night in the mausoleum." She slowly nodded and he tried to smile, "What about that night?"
Phoebe shrugged, "I realized, before, when you were telling us about the night Adam was born"
"Realized what?" he gently encouraged her.
Phoebe kissed her newborn and quietly admitted, "That's when it all changed for us. If it hadn't been for that night, we wouldn't be here right now with three beautiful sons. It's a little scary to think how close we came to never having any of this."
"Maybe we had to reach the point of no return before we could find our way," he asked her to consider. "Maybe we had to reach the end before we could truly begin our life together."
"Do you really believe that?" she asked hopefully.
Cole nodded with certainty, "Some things are just meant to be."
"Mommy?" Adam suddenly interrupted.
"Yes, baby?" she replied even as she kept her gaze on her husband.
"What're we gonna call him?" he wondered as he carefully touched the baby's hand.
"Junior!" Ben exclaimed.
"I warned you, Cole" Phoebe said with annoyance. "I told you not to go around talking to the baby like that. Now look what you've started with Ben." Cole gave her a look of feigned innocence and she sighed, "No, Ben, we're not calling your brother Junior'."
"Elmo?" he seriously suggested.
"We're not naming him after an orange Muppet," Cole indignantly replied as he tried to ignore Phoebe's giggles, "and I don't care how many stuffed Elmos you have."
Phoebe finally controlled her laughter and announced to her sons, "Say hello to your new brother, Daniel Ryan Turner."
"Hi, Daniel," Adam softly said with a smile.
Cole shifted position and allowed Ben to get a closer look of the baby and Ben sadly declared, "He doesn't like me."
"What to you mean, Ben?" Cole asked in surprise. "Of course he likes you. You're his brother."
"But he's not even looking at me," Ben shook his head. "His eyes are closed and he doesn't want to see us."
"Oh, sweetie," Phoebe murmured, "he's eating now. All babies close their eyes when they eat. Of course he wants to see you." But Ben hid in Cole's embrace and Phoebe carefully detached Daniel from her breast. She wiped his lips with the edge of his blanket and refastened her gown.
"Look, Mommy," Adam said, "he's awake again."
The baby started to fuss and she carefully shifted him so that Ben could see. "Look, Ben, look at your brother."
Ben peeked and sat up straighter. "He's looking at me?"
"That's right," Phoebe assured him. "He's looking at you and at Adam and he is very happy to see you."
"I think he's smiling at us," Adam decided.
"I think you're right," she agreed. "You see, Ben? Danny's happy because he knows you and Adam are his big brothers."
"I'm gonna take care of him just like Ben," Adam stated.
"And you're such a good older brother," Phoebe proudly told him.
"I get to take care of him too?" Ben asked his father.
"Yes, Ben," Cole promised. "You're a big brother now and you get to take care of Daniel too."
"Not gonna let any demons near him," Ben announced.
Cole watched the color drain from his wife's face and quickly reached out to her over Adam's head. He placed his palm on her cheek and stroked it with his thumb. She leaned into it and he felt the tear that fell from her eye. "It's okay, baby. We're all safe. You, me, our sons. We're safe."
"Why," she whispered, "why can't we ever have a child in peace? Just once I wish I could have a demon-free pregnancy and delivery like any other ordinary woman."
"You aren't like any other ordinary woman," he informed her, "and, for that, I'm eternally grateful. StillI'll put in the order that next time we go demon-free all the way."
"Next time?" she retorted as she pulled away from him. "What makes you think there will be a next time? If you think you are ever touching me again"
"Seems I've heard that twice before," he knowingly grinned as he gently nudged Ben off his lap and next to Adam.
"I mean it this time," she promised as she carefully deposited Daniel into his arms.
He shook his head with amusement, grateful that her fears and worries were gone, for at least the moment. But he'd been there for her both times when she had those nightmares of her ordeals and he was going to be by her side this time, too.
"Cole?" she suddenly asked in concern. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he assured her, "I was simply thinking about how much I love you and how thankful I am for you being my life."
"Wife," she corrected.
"Life," he repeated. "You and the boys are my life," he stated, "and I don't know where I'd be without you."
"I don't ever want to find out," she quietly said.
"You won't," he assured her, "because I'm not letting you go so you are stuck with me for good."
"You're just saying that so you'll get your way," she pouted.
Cole grinned, "You can't resist me any more than I can resist you." He watched smugly as she tried to contain her smile. "C'mon, Phoebe," he continued to tease, "wouldn't you like to have a little girl who --"
She suddenly glared at him with renewed annoyance, "Daniel's not even twelve hours old and you want me pregnant again? Not gonna happen, buddy, unless you're the one in the stirrups." She caught his grin and muttered, "You and your damn invincible sperm"
"Not so invincible," he muttered under his breath.
Phoebe grew fearful and, in a tremulous voice, apologized, "It slipped out."
"It's okay," he lovingly assured her, "it was five years ago and I was never angry with them. At least not as angry as you were."
"Mommy?" Adam questioned when he sensed his mother's sudden change in mood.
"That purple potion changed everything," she whispered to Cole.
"We don't know that," he shook his head. "It still might have ended the same way."
"I love you," she hoarsely, and desperately, told him.
"And I love you," he replied with a reassuring smile, "always and forever."
"Is forever a long time, Daddy?" Ben asked.
"The longest," Cole replied in mock seriousness.
"Good," Ben decided as he crawled over Adam into his mother's arms, "'cuz that's how long I'll love you."
"Me too," Adam agreed as he hugged his mother too.
"Always and forever," Phoebe nodded as she hugged her sons and gazed into her husband's eyes.
"Always and forever," Cole lovingly repeated as he cradled their youngest son and gazed back at her and the rest of his family, "always and forever."
the end