I'm back

When Phoebe woke up she was thinking about that dream. But it didn't take a lot of time and the thought just faded away. It was Saturday morning and she was the last one who got up, so she hurried down the stairs and found the whole family in the kitchen. Paige was trying to tame her disobedient hair, Piper was trying to seat Wyatt, Chris was bringing the bakery products on the table and Leo was reading the newspaper.

"Good morning, guys!" said Phoebe yawning.

"Good morning, Pheebs," said Piper.

"Good morning," responded Paige still trying to arrange her hair.

Finally, Chris and Leo noticed Phoebe's presence:

"Hi Phoebe, what did take you so long to come here?" they said concurrently. Piper gave them a kind look and smiled.

"Phoebe's here, so we can eat." they said again at the same moment.

"You two, did I already tell you I love you, today?" asked Piper.

"I love you too" they answered, again at the same moment. Now everybody started to laugh.

After about half an hour they were all in the living room. Chris and Wyatt were sitting on the ground and playing with the building blocks and Paige was talking to Phoebe. Piper was watching her two sons, Leo kissed her stomach carefully and join his ex-wife.

"This is gonna be such a nice day," said Leo "everybody looks happy and there are no signs of demonic activity in this house, touch wood."

At the moment he said "touch wood" they heard a male voice behind them:

"Hi guys, I'm Back!"

Everybody turned as quickly as possible to see the one who was trying to destroy their beautiful day. But only thing they could do was gaping at him, hoping that it was just a delusion.

Only Chris was able to think. He stood up and with a big smile on his face he hugged that man.

"Uncle Cole! I was expecting you." Then he looked at his family, that was staring at him

"Maybe I shouldn't have told it." Chris said uncertainly

Cole wanted to ask who Chris was, but Paige interrupted him:

"Cole! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be dead, we vanquished you!"

Cole gave her a look and smiled.

"C'mon Paige, don't be silly. I already escaped from Wasteland once... and the second time it was only easier."

Piper finally recovered from the shock and tried to blow Cole up, but without a noticeable success.

"Piper, you weren't able to destroy me two years ago, even I wasn't able to kill myself, so why are you thinking you could vanquished me now?"

"Oh, you're right." she said with a disappointment.

"But you don't need to be afraid of me, I'm not gonna hurt you. After the last time you vanquished me," he looked at Paige and his eyes were telling 'it was all your fault', "in fact you vanquished Belthazor, but that's beside the point, I escaped from Wasteland and took the offer I had been thinking about for a few days. So the being you are looking at in that strange way is an Avatar. That mean I'm neither good nor evil. Did you hear it? I'm not evil anymore."

"Oh, I heard it so many times before."

"No Phoebe, Cole is telling the truth. Trust me, he really isn't evil anymore."

Cole wanted to ask about the stranger who was defending him, but Paige didn't give him the chance.

"So if you aren't evil and you don't wanna kill us, what exactly are doing here?"

"Look guys, I know the last time we met I was crazy... a little bit..."

"A little bit, you're joking?"

"Oh, hi Leo, pleased to see you again... but yeah, maybe I was crazy more than just a little bit... hey Phoebe, that reminds me, have I already told you I'm sorry about mummifying you..."

"Yeah, I like this story. What was the name of that demon who did it, Jeric?"

"Yep," Cole turned to Chris,"but who the hell are you? And did you call me 'uncle Cole'?"

"Oh, of course, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Chris, Chris Perry... Halliwell."

"Another Halliwell? Gimme a break!"

"Don't worry Cole, he hasn't been born yet."

Cole really didn't know what to think about it. Leo just told him that the guy who was standing beside him didn't exist.

When Leo looked at Cole and saw the way Cole was staring at him, he realised that the thing he said had to sound really freaky.

"I wanted to say he is from the future. He is our younger son." Leo said quickly and looked at his ex-wife very softly.

"Piper, you are pregnant... again. Way to go, Leo." Cole said very ironical way.

"But back to you. Chris, right? Not that I'm complaining, but ain't I young for having so big nephew?"

Chris looked at Cole, came closer to him and whispered:

"Cole, this year it's your 120 birthday, how old would you like to be to have a nephew?"

Cole looked a little ashamed:

"Oh, you're right, I've forgotten.... Well, if you know me from the future, it means that I..."

"Forget it, I know what you're thinking about, but no. In my reality nobody knew that I ever met you. Except mum, of course, because she was the one who introduced you to me." everybody was gazing at Piper, so Chris continued quickly:

"Look, when I was about 5 years old, I wanted to learn how to control my orbing. Dad was too busy, he was saving the world," he said ironically, " aunt Paige wasn't at home, she was dating or something, and there was nobody else who would know how to orb, only Wyatt, but he was in magic school. Mom saw how sad I was. 'Her little sweetie wanted to learn something and there was nobody who could help him,' so she called you. You told me a few really funny stories about you learning shimmering and taught me how to orb when and where I wanted to orb. From that moment I called you every time I needed an advice and dad was helping everyone but me. You always told me one of your stories and I felt better. Trust me, I know about you more than you know about yourself, I heard every story so many times that I could write your memoir."

While Chris was talking everybody was smiling at him, except Leo, his heart was breaking. When Chris finished, Cole was thinking about something for a while.

"If you heard my stories so many times, that would mean..." Cole turned to Leo and continued "oh Leo, I would have never believed that you could be such a bed father."

"OK, anybody else would like to remind me?!" Leo was almost yelling, his voice was full of anger and pain. When he realised what he was doing, he sat down nearly crying. Piper came closer to him and kissed him on his forehead. Cole didn't dare to say something stupid as he would have done in another similar situation. He rather turned to Chris:

"Let's talk soon, it seems to be very interesting conversation."

Chris smiled at Cole and nodded.