A/N: To Snowbunny - aww! You poor thing! I can't believe you didn't guess. Anon, I'm happy to hear you're feeling better! Let's keep it that way eh?

A/N: Mild sex scene. You have been warned.

A/N: Thanks to those who helped me with this chapter... and to those who review, you're the ones making me continue!

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Psychosis: Revelations

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"I'll go and I'll look. I'll crouch by her body. I'll ignore the pain. She'll look at me and smile and tell me everything will be alright. Yes. She's right. She always is. And she'll sit up and pull me close and whisper in my ear. Everything will be alright."

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Piper didn't look at Paige and smile and tell her everything would be all right. No. Paige was wrong. She always was. And she didn't sit up and pull Paige close or whisper in her ear that everything would be all right. She didn't do anything.

Keeping to her resolution, Paige had indeed went downstairs to her battered sister to check her status. She'd crouched by her body, gazing at the unmoving form and examined the already purple bruises, contusions and abrasions. Piper's hair was spread out around her head like a halo, but she was face down and looked anything but glorified and angelic. She looked dead.

Perhaps she was; Paige couldn't tell either way. She sat by Piper's body with a childlike innocence, as if casually waiting for a parent to wake up so she could have a playmate or get breakfast. She pulled her legs up to her body and hugged her knees, sitting at her big sister's side and rocking gently. Occasionally she'd throw a glance in Piper's direction, but always it was the same. In fact, there tended to be even more blood as time passed. Blood dripping from her nose, and the scratches on her face. Blood from a spot on her head Paige couldn't see from the way she was lying, but on closer inspection of a greasy-looking patch of hair, Paige found that it was soaked with blood rather than anything else. There was blood on her back too, turns out that just as the damp in her hair wasn't grease or tears, the wet patch on her dark shirt wasn't sweat. Paige's hands were scarlet, and so was her face from the constant touching she'd subjected herself to. When she was bored, she tended to paw at her features. Something her adoptive mother had frowned upon; apparently it made her dirty.

Well, she wasn't as dirty as Piper, that was for sure. Paige had just taken a cold shower and scrubbed her skin fresh. Mabe even a little too fresh, she noted, looking at the huge scratches dominating the flesh on her arms. She'd rubbed off the old skin and left only the new. It was new and so was she.

Several feet away, Cole stood impassively and watched the two Halliwells for a while longer. They'd completely cracked. All three of them. One thing for sure was that he was never going to let Phoebe be reunited with her sisters again, well not properly anyway. She'd been nagging at him recently to take her up here to visit, but she'd always been apprehensive about seeing Paige for some reason. Cole kept quiet the fact that he knew Paige had beat Phoebe up and that had been Phoebe's point of breakdown, because Phoebe never told him and if she found out he already knew then the questions would begin. He'd come up quickly just a few minutes ago to see how Paige and Piper were doing, and from the looks of things, the situation had worsened rather than improved; and this suited Cole just fine. With a smile, he shimmered out and arrived into the penthouse to see Phoebe padding into their bedroom wearing merely a towel. Perhaps their visit to the manor could wait just a little longer, he thought with a snide lick of his lips.

Following Phoebe into the bedroom, he stood in the doorway and watched as she tossed the towel onto the bed and began to unravel the second one binding her hair up into a turban. Freed, she shook her hair out and sighed deeply. Cole could feel himself beginning to want her, and decided to make his presence known.

"Oh!" Phoebe yelped and leapt into the bed at the sound of someone clearing his throat coming from behind her. She tugged the covers over her naked body and bounced on the soft mattress a few times before coming to rest and shooting Cole a deathly glare. "You scared me!" she accused.

Smiling, Cole swaggered slightly as he entered the room. "I like 'em to be scared," he said in low tones. "I like to make 'em scream." He was unbuttoning his blue-tinged shirt as he spoke, and Phoebe clearly showed no objection to this as she opened the duvet to let him clamber in.

Quickly removing his pants, Cole hopped under the covers with Phoebe wearing only his boxers, which weren't exactly the most inconspicuous of garments. He began to let his hands caress Phoebe's body, lingering on her breasts before wrapping around her back and pulling her in towards him. She was still wet from the shower. Then with one quick manouver, she was sitting on top of him. That was all the initiative they needed. Though Cole knew he could take his time; Paige and Piper would be in the same spot for a long while. Cole had made sure that their Whitelighter Leo had been taken care of.

He'd summoned a Darklighter and that was that. Leo had really lost his touch when it came to sensing the old set up. Grab one of his charges, hold them hostage, make them scream out for him, and in he orbs, plain and simple. And BAM! Crossbow, arrow, right in the chest too. Terrific aim, that Darklighter. Cole took a note to recommend him to others... if only he could remember his name...

It'd been really deep too. Cole had been hidden at the time but watched the whole thing. It looked sore, even for someone not quite so weedy as Leo. So they'd left him for dead at that same place. In fact, Cole realised with a smile, he was probably already gone. Everything was working out perfectly. Soon Phoebe would be his forever. All he had to do was completely sever her sisterly bond and she'd never want to see those witches again. He already had plans for the other two.

Life was good. How easily he'd twisted a series of unfortunate events to his own advantage. Thank God that dumb bitch Prue had been killed, or else Piper never would've lost it, and Prue would've probably vanquished him once and for all by now. You had to respect her sheer enthusiasm for hating Cole, because she really did. And it wasn't just angry and screaming hate. It was cool, centered and calm. It was quiet loathing as well as detesting rage. It was hardcore. And he liked it.

In some respects he actually quite missed the suspicious little whore. She'd always provided him with such challenges; it was almost as if it was an insult to Prue that he finally captured her baby sister thanks to the psychological misgivings of her other sister. And Paige had just dropped into the bag too. Well she was screwed up enough as it was without having to deal with Piper's shit and, of course, Cole's little... "push" in the right direction. He smiled again.

Panting, Phoebe collapsed down beside Cole and let herself breathe for a few minutes. Then she turned onto her side and shot Cole a huge beaming grin. "I love you," she said.

"Marry me," Cole uttered, completely unexpectedly even to himself.

The request hung heavily in the air and for a moment it looked as if Phoebe was about to say no and throw it back in his face, but then her expression went blank in that special way that only hers did when she was shocked. And slowly, a smile spread over her lips. "Yes," she told him, "I will marry you. I will. Oh, I do!"

Cole grinned joyously.

Giggling, Phoebe sat up and kissed her new fiance lingeringly on the lips, then slowly moved down to his chest, running her tongue over his stomach. Before he betrayed his intentions, Cole sat up and pulled her into his arms, cradling her like a child. "You don't know just how happy you made me," he said, gazing into her eyes.

"If it's even half as happy as I am, then yes I do," she replied, then once again her forehead smoothed out as she remembered something. "But first," she began, almost timidly, "first I want to get Piper and Paige's blessings. It's important to me that they approve."

Cole nodded as if he understood and shifted her onto the bed so he could get up. "I'll take you to them now," he suggested.

"Really?" Phoebe asked, her eyes brimming with hope. Previously, Cole had been refusing Phoebe visits with her sisters for reasons unbeknownst to the Halliwell. In fact, she hadn't seen them since... since...

Suddenly Phoebe wasn't so keen on seeing her sisters after all. Memories of her last encounter with Paige flooded back to her in a torrent of horror and agonising pain. But Paige had seemed genuinely sorry at the time, hadn't she? Maybe she was better now, maybe she could explain herself and what was wrong with her. Slowly, Phoebe got dressed and mulled her thoughts over. Whatever she was going to do, there was no way she could tell Cole what had happened with Paige. It was just far too painful.

She was going to be married! She couldn't believe it! Mrs Phoebe Turner. No, Halliwell-Turner. That way she was keeping up the family tradition while also making it clear she belonged to someone. Belonged, no, betrothed. That was a better word. It sounded so much more significant. She couldn't wait to tell Piper.

Unable to conceal her huge grin, Phoebe bounded over to her fiance and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Let's go," she beamed, and didn't even care when the familiar not-so-pleasant feeling of the shimmer consumed her. Even during the two second transition from place to place her high spirits didn't waver. She was just so happy to feel like she belonged again. She was ecstatic.

Until they arrived in the manor.

Then she screamed.

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A/N: Sorry about the grossness there! But I just go with whatever comes to me because it feels natural for the characters so... don't blame me for any lost lunches. And don't worry about Cole's increasing suspicion-factor. I'm not going to spoil this story with that idiot.