Distribution: This story cannot in part or whole be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies may only be distributed with author's permission and must include all disclaimers.
Disclaimer: Cole Turner, Darryl Morris, Prue, Piper, Paige, and Phoebe Halliwell. Leo Wyatt, Jenna, and Andy Trudeau and all other characters that have appeared on the series "Charmed" as well as the concept of Charmed and all backstory are the copyright property of Aaron Spelling, E. Duke Vincent, and the WB Television Network. No copyright infringement was intended. All original characters as well as the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.
Okay here is the next chapter. Muse has decided on cutting the chapter up into parts and this is the first in what we call "A Mile In Cole's Shoes" where Piper learns more than she ever expected to about Cole Turner and Belthazor.
Tim and Piper appeared in the much-used utility closet on the first floor of the hospital, it was and could only be locked from the inside. Pandy and Pee Wee appeared a second later. Piper quickly reached down and grabbed both furry ones as Tim checked to make sure the coast was clear.
"Okay now I have to check in with Nurse Cratchett and then…… what?" Tim asked as both of Piper's eyebrows shot up.
"You are kidding with that name right?" Piper was doing everything with in her power right now to NOT think about what Leo and her sisters had done to Cole and Darryl.
"No I am not kidding and believe me when I say that she more than lives up to the moniker, more than lives up to it." Tim shuddered without even realizing it, which caused Piper to tilt her head questioningly. "Darryl nicknamed her 'The Wicked Witch of the North' the day Nurse Cratchett first found her way into Uncle Cole's room brandishing her very long needle that she planned to stick in my Uncle Cole's backside. Fortunately for her I was able to get her out of there before Grams turned her back into Stuart Little." Tim suddenly realized that he was rambling and closed his mouth. Taking a deep breath to center himself he turned to face Piper. "Sorry about that. It's just that I am worried about Uncle Cole and Darryl and when I get worried I tend to ramble, sorry."
"That's okay, I'm worried about them too." Piper said as she held Pandy just a little tighter with one hand while holding Pee Wee with the other. She watched Tim watch her, looking into her eyes searching for something but before she could ask what he was looking for she saw him smile at her.
"You really are worried about Uncle Cole." Tim had been looking, searching Piper's eyes using his own Talents. As an Elfin Wizard he had the ability to "see" into people's souls, to know if they were telling the truth. This particular Talent was the main reason that Elfin Wizards were so highly prized and why many had become slaves to Demon masters; of course an equal amount "served" the Elders in very much the same way and under the same conditions. This Talent was also the reason that he knew what he did about his Uncle and Darryl. Neither knew that he could see into their souls as well, Grams had told them that he couldn't for their own protection. His Uncle needed time to adjust to his new life, as did Darryl; so when he had come to their hospital room after his Uncle and Darryl had completed the first Bond, and Uncle Cole had asked him what he saw, Grams had stepped in and told them that he couldn't see into their souls because of the Bond. If he hadn't been looking he would have missed the brief flash of relief in his Uncle's eyes at this news.
A few days later when he was talking to his Uncle Cole about the decorating of their new home, he had looked into his Uncle's soul and what he saw had given him nightmares for months. He had tried to read his Uncle once before but Big Belthazor had stopped him. This time there was no Big Belthazor to stop him, although after he had seen he had wished there had been. When he had looked into Darryl's soul later in the week he simply added to his own nightmares. Darryl may not have been raised in the Underworld like his Uncle had but that didn't mean he hadn't had a hard life; Tim found out that day just how hard Darryl's life had been and once again his tears fell as they had for his Uncle. Piper's voice brought him back to himself.
"I do care about Cole, I really do Tim. I'm just sorry that it took this to make me see how much I do care. Now I'm rambling." Piper shook her head at her own inability to express herself. Normally she was very articulate but right now she was finding it hard to put two sentences together. Fortunately for both her and Tim, Pee Wee decided to step in.
"Tim. I think it would be best if you checked in with the Wicked Nurse of the North, quickly checked in and then quickly return so that we can get to the boys room. This part of the hospital is not warded after all." Pee Wee and Pandy could see that Tim and Piper were going to need some help but they could also see that this was a prime opportunity for Piper to begin to learn about Cole.
"I'll be right back. Don't move, any of you." Tim quietly opened the door after having checked to make sure that the coast was clear and slipped out. He didn't want to be gone long because right now he was responsible for all of them and he had no intentions of letting anything happen to any of them. When he reached the nurse's station where the doctor's checked in and found Sally behind the counter instead of Nurse Cratchett he breathed a sigh of relief. His relaxation didn't last long though.
"Oh there you are Doctor Stephenson." Sally smiled up at the doc as he signed off on two patients and ordered a few tests for two others. She really didn't want to be the one to have to tell him but seeing as how everyone else seemed to have taken a powder it was up to her. "Uhm before you disappear again." Sally stopped to clear her throat, which caused Doc Stephenson's head to shoot up; she could tell that he knew something was up. He raised his hand though as she drew a breath to continue.
"Sally, my dear dear dear friend. You don't see me, you didn't see me, and you haven't seen me all day." Tim smiled once before dashing away knowing that she could easily rain on his plans. Tim planned on telling Piper about his Uncle Cole. If Piper was to be a part of the Prophecy then she would have to learn her lessons and learn them fast for the time of the Whirlwind was almost upon them and everyone must be ready to play their part when the time finally came. He thought about how he was going to handle Piper's lessons as he made his way back to the closet.
"Okay guys the coast is clear but Grams didn't lift the protection spells enough for us to make it down the magical way so we are going to have to use the lift." As he took Pee Wee from Piper's grasp he could see the tilt of her head again. "She re-enforced all of the protection spells when…" He couldn't finish as he realized what he was about to say but he didn't have to finish.
"When we showed up, to protect Cole from us." Piper help Pandy even closer as she fought to keep from crying, but her mind simply would not stop showing her images of Cole. She saw flashes of a blind Cole laughing with Darryl; of their quiet reading time this morning; of Darryl carrying a sleeping Cole like a child in his arms; of a sleeping Cole, whimpering as he searched blindly for Darryl. The images kept flashing through her mind as she fought to control her raging emotions, most powerful was her emerging self hatred. This self-hatred only grew as her mind replayed for her events that happened while Cole had been living with them.
She saw Cole lying on the ground bleeding from a stab wound from the Source. Cole had used his sensing power to find Paige knowing that the Source might also find him, which he did and Cole almost died because of it.
She saw Cole lying at the foot of the stairs barely conscious as she slashed him across the chest with her Fury Talons. He had willingly chosen to play bait to save her knowing that he could die doing it.
She hadn't been awake at the time but Leo had told her of how Cole had stepped into the line of fire and was hurt while being captured so that they could find her and save her when the Source had kidnapped her and gotten into her mind. He had risked his life, again, to save hers and she had never thanked him for it.
She remembered the look of pain on his face when she had asked him if anything was wrong and he had said only that he had a headache. She had seen the sudden onset of pain and yet she did nothing but smile and send him on his way.
She remembered the look lost look on his face when Belthazor was vanquished.
He had looked so lost that day, actually he looked lost for quite a while after that. I wonder why?
She was brought out of her thoughts as the lift doors opened and Tim pulled her inside, she hadn't even realized they had made it to the lift until she saw the doors start to close. As she looked up at the sound of someone calling Tim's name she caught sight of a middle-aged nurse wearing a look that would make any drill sergeant proud. "Tim?" When she looked over to her companion she saw what could only be described as a 'cat-who-ate-the-canary-look' spread across his face as he gleefully waved at the oncoming nurse. It took her a second but then she made the connection. "I take it that was Nurse Cratchett?" She couldn't help but roll her eyes at his most self-satisfied response.
"Oh yes that was the Wicked Nurse of the North all right. Hey Darryl is the one that nicknamed her not me." Tim defended himself to Piper's rolling eyes. He was actually glad that she had retained at least some of her sense of humor because he was positive that she was going to need it before all was said and done.
The trip to the boy's floor was made in silence as Tim tried to get his thoughts in order as to what he was going to tell Piper. He didn't want to overwhelm her but where did he start. In the end he decided to simply let her ask the questions and he would do the best he could in answering them. He looked down as he felt Pee Wee lift his head up and he could just swear that the little fur ball was smiling at him. Shaking his head he led Piper from the elevator to Grams' office. As soon as he opened the door and let her pass he realized what he had done and he wasn't sure if he should undo it or not as he watched Piper start looking around the room at all of the photos.
The office was wedding planning central and there was 'planning debris' as his Uncle Cole and Darryl called it lying out all over the place. Both his Uncle Cole and Darryl were having fun helping in the planning but they were men and apparently it didn't matter what species you were, if you were the male of it there were some things that would always elude you… such as the finer points of wedding planning. He laughed a little to himself as he remembered the look on the boys' faces when they simply couldn't understand the finer points of who would sit at which table. They both had made the mistake of saying "what difference does it make… this is the Nation and we are all family". He remembered the looks on Grams and the twins' faces and how the twins had moved to sit in their respective mates lap, telling them that they didn't have to understand it and that they would take care of it. The look that then passed between his Uncle Cole and Darryl told him that neither of them had a clue and decided to shut up before they put their foot into it again. Piper's startled voice brought him out of his musings.
"Oh my God." Piper couldn't believe what she was looking at. There on the desk sat a picture of Cole, Darryl, and the twins at the beach. What had startled Piper was all of the little kids running around them. In the picture Cole and Darryl were buried up to their necks in the sand and the kids, 3 boys and 4 girls, none of them older than seven years old were making sand sculptures on and around the two men. The twins were sitting by the boys' heads; each was stroking their fiancé's hair and keeping the sun out of their eyes at the same time. Darryl had a mermaid tail and a wand in his sculpted right hand while Cole had a long flowing robe and wings just like an angel.
"That was taken about nine months ago on Tulum Beach. The kids are all Half-Bloods. They don't get to play much yet." Tim smiled as he remembered the day. Ever since his Uncle Cole had settled into his life with Darryl and the Twins, Tim had been able to spend more time with him that he had in pretty much his whole two lives.
"What do you mean 'don't get to play' much yet?" Piper didn't understand and she was determined to understand as much as she could so that she could be a better friend to Cole, and maybe just maybe he would let her call him big brother like Prue does. She didn't know why it mattered so much to her and right now she didn't really care if it was for a magical reason or not, all she cared about was earning Cole's forgiveness and trust so that she could look in the mirror and like the person looking back.
"Well none of them have an active power so it's dangerous for them to be out without a protector." Tim looked to Piper and he could see it in her eyes. She wanted more, she wanted to know why and who and he wasn't sure she was ready for either answer. The more Piper stared at him though the more he came to understand how deep her need was. "How much do you know about the Nation?"
Piper repeated what Grams had told her at the hospital and what she had figured out by watching and listening. He realized that she had the general gist of who and what they were but he still wasn't sure. "Piper, do you really want to know?" Her eyes said it all so he simply decided to tell her the truth to any and all questions that she was going to ask him.
"They need a protector from the Hound Demons, the elite demonic hound type unit that the Source had made to hunt down Half-Bloods when the Seer told him of her plan. The Source maybe gone but the Hound Demons are independent of him and they are still out there. They can multiply and they are never all in one place. Ever since Uncle Cole linked with Darryl he has been trying to find a permanent solution to the Hound problem, but so far no luck. Because of this, our younger ones always have a protector with them whenever they leave the Nation Safe Zone."
"The Hound Demons aren't the only problem are they?" Piper could see that Tim was holding back and as she clutched Pandy a bit tighter in her arms she said something she never thought she would ever say. "Their protectors protect them from demons yes, but also from witches right?" She knew that she was right when she saw him look down to Pee Wee who was still laying in his arms "But they are just children, surely the Elders don't see children as a threat do they?" She almost hated herself for even asking the question but she had to know. Was it true, were the Elders capable of killing innocent children? Suddenly she remembered what Cam had told her about her baby sister. Cam's sister would have only been around ten when she died when she was killed you mean her mind practically yelled at her. Things were fast spiraling out of control for her. Everything she thought she knew was turning out to be an out and out lie or such a twisting of the truth that the truth was barely recognizable within the jumble of half-truths and omissions. Pandy's voice snapped her mind back on track as she looked down at the puppy held safely in her arms.
"Piper, I know that this is hard for you. It's like asking you to unlearn the basics that have gotten you this far, and even saved your life on a few occasions. We aren't saying that the Elders are bad or evil, simply unenlightened to the true nature of the world and forces around them." Pandy could see the turmoil in her charge and it hurt the furry one, especially knowing that it had only just begun.
"It is their arrogance, their self-centered belief that they and they alone have the right to choose who is worthy of their idea of saving. They have laws and rules, laws and rules that they themselves created yet which they themselves consistently either ignore or rewrite to suit their own personal agendas of the moment." Pee Wee didn't mean to sound harsh but the Elders held a particularly low spot on his morality chart. When it came down to it he found Demons to be more honest and honorable than the much-lauded Elders. The Elders have lied, cheated, omitted facts, turned a blind eye, and even killed to fulfill their plans. On the whole not a problem except for the fact that they claimed to be helping you, trying to save you while the whole time they were trying to get rid of you without making themselves look bad. Demons are out to get what they can, they are going to try and kill you and they make no qualms about. When you ask a Demon why he/she killed they will tell you because they were following orders or because the price was right or because they were trying to make points to impress an upper level Demon or because they simply wanted to. When you ask the Elders they simply say that "it was for the best" or "everything happens for a reason" or "it wasn't meant to be" and all the while smiling to themselves that they had succeeded in maintaining their own agenda. Demons left behind brokenhearted loved ones whose hearts would mend with time; the Elders left behind destroyed lives that merely limped along until finally dying. Pee Wee was jarred from his thoughts by Pandy's somewhat loud voice.
"Pee Wee now is not the time for that." Pandy had heard all of Pee Wee's thoughts and understood them perfectly. As the Keeper of the Sight, Pee Wee had been privy to all of the lies and deceptions of the Elders and the Black Council and his furry companion had long ago given up hope of ever changing the Elders ways. Yes the Black Council were evil but the Elders were worse because they covered their deeds with a holy-like attitude. Pandy could tell that his friend was becoming agitated and she couldn't help but notice the similarity to Cole. Cole had a unique ability to see the many variations on a theme and to see where they would ultimately play out to, a rare talent indeed and probably one of the deciding factors in his ultimate survival up till now. Oh there had been very bad choices but those were usually made in the heat of the moment or when it came down to the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few and for Cole he was always the few. Cole also became highly agitated when his friends and family were put in the line of fire especially when he thought of himself as the cause of the danger and Pee Wee did the very same thing. Pandy laughed a little to herself before Piper's spoke up.
"Not the time for what?" Piper didn't know exactly what was going on but she had a bad feeling she wasn't going to like where this day was going to take her.
"Piper there is a lot that you are going to have to absorb in a relatively short period of time. Now we know that some of it will be painful to hear and difficult to accept but we don't have a lot of time here. The day of the Ascension is in five days and you must be ready to join the Ascension of your own free will and with a free heart and mind." Pee Wee's words were not loud but powerful nonetheless.
"And if I can't?" Piper knew she was going to be sorry that she asked and she was right.
"If you can't then there will be no Ascension."
"And?" She knew that there was an and here as well.
"Everyone connected to the Ascension directly will die." Pee Wee didn't like what he was going to have to say but he had to, she had the right to know. He could only hope that his words would help and not hurt the future. "The unborn ones will die when the Twins die, then Prue and Benjamin, and then Cole and Darryl after they have suffered the deaths of the others. Snuggles, Bearlock, and I will die with the boys. Pandy will remain with you through out your life time." Pee Wee didn't say another word as he let what he said settle with her now horrified mind. He could tell by her eyes that she was beginning to see, he just hoped that she would accept in time. "It is called Destiny Piper and it isn't always pretty but it is always right. You were destined to be a part of this Whirlwind that is coming, destined from the beginning whether you knew it or anyone else did. This is where you belong Piper and when you finally give yourself over to it and them you will learn what true acceptance really feels like."
Piper simply stared at the picture she still held in one hand. She had always thought that she was destined to be a Charmed One. She never thought that there could be anything or anyone that could come between her and the Charmed Ones; they were supposed to be the ultimate power of Good, the defenders of the innocent. But have you really done that? She asked herself. Have you protected the innocents or only those that the Elders deemed worthy of help? Piper had been able to answer these questions readily and with pride a year ago, but now the answers weren't that easy anymore.
Ever since Prue had started to come and talk to her she had started to see things differently. It was only a little in the beginning but the more she and Prue talked the more she began to see things differently, it just wasn't until now that someone actually put voice to what she had begun to fear. The Charmed Ones had lost their way. She looked at the picture again, at a man she had killed without even trying to save and she suddenly realized something, here was a man that had protected his people for a hundred years and never once wavered in duty, a man who silently sacrificed everything in the name of that duty. She looked more closely at Cole's face in the picture, of the way he was looking at the children running around him and one word echoed in her head…Love. He didn't do what he did out of duty to any one person but out of duty to his own heart and the love that that heart held.
"It was a mask."
"What was a mask Piper?" Tim knew what she was talking about but he asked anyway. It was a way in, a way to begin to show her who his Uncle Cole and Darryl really were. When she turned and looked at him he knew what he was going to have to do, he just didn't know how he was going to do it. He didn't share a bond with Piper since she wasn't of the Nation… yet.
"The Cole that I knew before. It had to be a mask." Piper was starting to figure out a few things on her own and she wasn't liking what she was coming up with.
"Why?" Tim and Pee Wee asked at the same time.
"He's so different, so… open and…" Piper just couldn't say it because once she did she would have to accept responsibility for what she had done, she would have to open her eyes even more. But isn't that what you want to do? She asked herself. She brought her eyes back to the picture in her hand, back to his face. "Childlike."
The word had been almost a whisper but Tim had heard it. She had given him this opening now he only had to figure out how he was going to use it and if she would be strong enough for what was to come.
"That's because he is like a child in many ways Piper. You have to understand that it was Belthazor that you had dealt with in the past."
"Not exactly Tim, it was more like a combination but one that was 75% Belthazor and 25% Cole." Pee Wee said as he saw where Tim was going. "Cole's emotions, his emotional self if you will hid himself away when he was very young."
"Why?" Piper knew she wasn't going to like the answer but she had to know if she was going to have any hope in understanding this man that she had so wronged in the past.
Pee Wee looked up to Tim and got an idea. "Tim can you project?"
"Yes. Why? You're not thinking what I think you're thinking are you? You are thinking it. Pee Wee I'm not sure…" Tim wasn't sure if Piper could handle it, hell he wasn't sure he could handle it himself but the look in Pee Wee's eye told him that they had no choice. Piper had to understand in order to accept her place among them and this would be the fastest way and since there time was short. "Alright what do you want me to show her?" He didn't like this but he would do it anyway. He loved his Uncle Cole and if this would help then he would do it.
As Pee Wee thought about which things to show Piper, Tim drew a Circle of Power on the floor of the office. Within the Circle the images would remain, and so would they until it was finished.
"She already knows about certain events but hearing isn't the same as seeing. There are key events that she needs to witness. The Dagger; the branding; the…Braitis incident; the possession; the release of his father's soul. I know Tim but it has to be done." Pee Wee could see the pain already showing in Tim's eyes but he knew that Piper had to see to truly understand, he just hoped that she would be strong enough for this.
"We need to show her the Wasteland as well." Tim knew that Pee Wee was right but he also had an idea of something she needed to see to understand. He looked to Piper as he worked on the Circle. She had put the picture down and was holding onto Pandy as if her life depended on it. He couldn't blame her, she already had heard about some of the things that she was to see and she had cried at the simple telling of the incidents. Incidents… ha! They weren't mere incidents. Why does the universe take such perverse pleasure in tormenting my Uncle Cole? Why is it determined to see him hurt at every turn? Why does it show him no mercy? Tim had been asking himself these very questions for years now and he was no closer now to an answer than he had been the first time.
"Okay all set. Piper could you please step inside the circle?" Tim held his hand out to her as she slowly made her way to the edge of the Circle. He could see her hesitation and he understood it, she had heard about some of the things they wanted to show her and she was afraid of actually seeing them played out before her and he couldn't blame her in the least. A smile though found its way to his lips a moment later as he watched her square her shoulders and walk into the Circle. Her grip on Pandy looked almost painful to him but Pandy didn't seem to mind. If he didn't know better he would have sworn that he saw a tear fall from Pandy's eye. When he looked to Pee Wee he realized that he hadn't been imaging things as he saw a tear fall from the kitty's eye as well.
Circle that surrounds
us
I call upon your Power
Show us that which we seek
By letting the past be revealed
To the eyes of we four
Tim spoke the words he needed to activate the Circle to show them the past. The room around them dissolved into a mist and when it finally coalesced it began to show them the first nightmare that was his Uncle's past.
Tim, Pee Wee, and Pandy had, for various reasons already seen these memories so they were able to concentrate on Piper and her reactions to them. None of them knew what her reaction to seeing these things first hand would be; they all simply hoped that she would be strong enough.
Piper took a look around though she never moved from her spot. When she turned and saw little Cole she couldn't stop the small gasp from escaping her lips. He was wearing what Piper thought were turn of the century clothes as he sat on a rock in the cave. She could see the scared look on his little face, but she could also feel his fear. "He's so scared." Her words were whispered but the others heard her. "I can feel it."
"She can feel his emotions?" Tim looked to Pee Wee, not sure what was happening here. His power was projection but that was only visual, he didn't have the power to project emotions.
"It's the link, somehow she is tapping into it." Pee Wee was watching Piper as she watched the demon grab little Cole from behind and carry him to the stone slab in the middle of the room.
"But she isn't linked to any of us yet so how can she be using the link and for that matter the link can't show her his emotions. What is happening Pee Wee?" Tim wasn't liking this one little bit. It was one thing to show Piper the past so she could better understand Uncle Cole but to allow her to feel his emotions, it just felt wrong to him. Pee Wee's next words though helped to alleviate some of his fears.
"It's Destiny Tim, it's trying to make sure that Cole and Darryl live and for that to happen Piper must accept her place with them." Pee Wee said as he continued to watch Piper's reactions.
"The Balance is trying to protect itself." Pandy said as Piper tightened her hold on her again as she watched little Cole being chained to the stone and the potion shoved down his throat.
Tim thought about what Pee Wee and Pandy had said and it made sense to him, but somehow he still felt that he was violating his Uncle Cole's trust by letting this happen. "Pee Wee I can't do this. These are his memories and it just feels wrong somehow."
"I know Tim, I know but she wouldn't be able to tap into them unless she was supposed to. Right Pee Wee?" Pandy said as she briefly turned her attention away from Piper who was transfixed by what was happening around them.
"Pandy is correct Tim. The Balance will do what it has to as it moves into the Time of the Whirlwind." Pee Wee looked to Tim once again as he spoke. He could see Tim's inner struggle but he could also see when Tim finally gave himself over to the idea.
Tim and Pee Wee both turned their attention to the scene around them and quickly had to move to Piper when they saw her start to fall.
Piper felt Tim come up beside her and grab her. She was glad for his presence as her legs began to give out on her. The scene before her was a nightmare. The fear in little Cole becoming unbearable as she watched his little body stop moving.
"Oh God he's still awake… they're going to … to do that to him while he's awake." Piper couldn't hold back her tears. Hearing about what had happened in no way prepared her for this, for a little boy's terror.
She had felt his deep sadness when they had taken his clothes from him and she knew why, they had been the last connection he had had to his father. That feeling quickly turned to fear as his mother forced the potion down his throat. Fear turned to terror as he lost control of his own body, the demon locking his wrists into the shackles and securing them over his head and into the stone slab. The pain and fear she felt from him as the demoness, his mother, cut into his eyes was overwhelming. When she felt a numbness begin to creep over her she realized that it was little Cole reaching his threshold, his body in too much pain and his mind too scared to think anymore. She remembered his mother saying that the potion would also keep him awake and she suddenly felt sick as she realized that little Cole wouldn't pass out like she felt he would because he couldn't.
It had felt like an eternity to Piper but eventually little Cole could move again but he was still hurting and secured to the stone slab.
"How long?" Her question for all of them but it was Tim who answered.
"He's been there for seven hours and she won't come back for another six. She won't be back until tomorrow." Tim replied in answer to her questioning look. When the look was replaced with yet another look he knew what she was thinking. "Time is working differently for us in the Circle. You have felt what he felt, now think of feeling like that for thirteen hours." They all watched as a look of horror washed over her. "Yes Piper, she left him there for thirteen hours.
"And then she… she… "Piper just couldn't being herself to say it so Pee Wee said it for her.
"And then she pinned him to the cave wall for the first time after she brought him back to their living quarters; leaving him there for another twelve hours." Pee Wee said while looking at the little boy laying motionless on the stone slab. The Athame that he had just seen created was the very Athame that Letore had used to take his eye from him, stealing his Sight so he couldn't use it to help the Chosen One, the very boy she had tortured in the making of it. He felt a tear fall from his whisker, a tear for the little boy that never got to be.
Tim looked around them as the walls began to disappear and were replaced with the walls of Gram's office. He looked up to the wall clock and realized that they had in fact been gone for only a few hours. He was about to ask but Pee Wee beat him to it.
"Okay it looks like we are going to get a rest period but it also appears that were aren't leaving the Circle either." Pee Wee had reached his little furry paw out and had met a wall of power. "Nope definitely not going anywhere." He turned his eye to check on Piper and found her on the floor. She was sitting Indian style with Pandy held close to her chest as she stoked Pandy between the ears while slowly rocking back and forth.
"How could anyone do that to him? He was just a little boy." Piper's tears flowed freely as the images replayed themselves in her head. She realized that the images that she had already seen and those that she will see, they would stay with her forever. A fitting penance Piper's mind told her and she readily agreed with it.
She's punishing herself Pee Wee and that is not what this was supposed to be about. Pandy thought to Pee Wee.
Pee Wee could plainly hear the worry in Pandy's thoughts. Don't worry. Just give her a minute. I think she is traveling in the right direction.
Tim for his part was watching Piper closely. He had seen her sink to the floor and stare off into space, her tears falling as she slowly rocked back and forth.
"Grams was right."
"Right about what Piper?" Pee Wee asked.
"Never judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes." She kissed the top of Pandy's head. "She was right. We never asked him anything; never truly let him in far enough so that he would feel safe enough with us to tell us. He had a plan, one that we undermined with our own nearsightedness, our self-righteousness. We never listened, never heard and for that he paid with his life."
As Piper fell silent, Tim looked to Pee Wee and Pandy. "What is happening here?" He could tell that they knew something he didn't and right now he needed to know what it was, after all this was his Uncle's life that they were talking about and he would do whatever he had to to protect him. It was Pee Wee that looked to him.
"She is seeing, for the first time she is seeing Cole as a person and as she sees him as a person instead of simply the human form of the demon Belthazor or her sister's demonic boyfriend or her ex-demonic boyfriend or the Source of All Evil. She is seeing Cole the person and it is causing her to re-examine all that has happened. She listened to what Grams told them when they were at the hospital and she has talked to Prue about it and because she made that effort her mind is connecting to her heart and her soul and together they are going to show her the way. Each memory she sees will simply open that connection even more and once it is open fully she will be able to face Cole and look him in the eye because then she will be ready to take her place amongst us."
"You mean that once she accepts her own guilt and responsibility for what has happened to Uncle Cole then she will be able to move beyond it?" Tim wasn't quite sure he was getting it and he needed to make sure he understood what was happening.
"Yes Tim and once she does then she will be free to help Cole do the same." Pandy was smiling as she said it, she couldn't help it. She knew that there was still a hard road ahead for Piper but she also knew that once Piper started on the road she was now on that there would be no turning back for her and as she moved forward so did Cole's chance to find peace himself, Cole's and Darryl's chance. The four simply remained where they were, each lost in their own thoughts of what lay ahead.
Okay that was just part one; there will be more soon. In the meantime please review. It helps Muse with her writing