Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of the characters.

The future of the world rests on the shoulders of... Cole

One Last Chance

Piper and Paige dismissed each other and told Phoebe through her door that they were all going to bed. Phoebe had yelled okay through the other side of the door and turned back the man that had claimed her heart no more than three years ago. She looked deeply into his eyes and then slightly rolled them. "Yeah, because you being a whitelighter makes sense."

"Look, Phoebe, I know it sounds crazy but I honestly am! I just got my wings and when they told me that you were my charge I was like 'What!' and they were like 'yeah' and I was like 'you are kidding' and they were like 'no' and then I was all 'you guys are all crazy' and-"

"Okay, okay, Cole, now you're just rambling in a way that's creeping me out."

"Right." Cole took a deep breath. Silence. "Okay, I've told the Elders this, and I'm telling you: I hate uncomfortable silences. They kinda... freak me out in a weird annoying kind of way." A small laugh escaped from Phoebe's mouth. Cole's heart sank. "It's been so long since I heard you laugh."

Phoebe quickly stopped giggling under her breath. "I wasn't laughing."

"Yes you were!"

"No I wasn't!"

"You so were!"

"I so wasn't!"

"Okay, we're stopping because this little game could go on forever," Cole said. The little tiff had lightened the mood, though as soon as it had ended, they both had felt the same amount of pressure on their shoulders as they did when they had first started talking.

Phoebe cleared her throat, and once again, silence.

"Was not," she said as she looked from the floor to Cole.

Cole held in a smile with all of his might and succeeded. When Phoebe didn't get the response she had wanted, she went back into the 'I hate and cannot stand Cole' mode.

"What are you doing here, honestly?" she questioned him.

"Oh my gosh! Do I honestly have to go through all of this again? Do you honestly want me to start rambling again?" Cole said, emphasizing the honestlies just so he could save whatever was left of the possible upper hand he might've had.

"You two are like little kids," Leo claimed as he orbed into the room. Both of them glanced at him. Leo quickly got the notion that he should leave and went to check on Piper and Wyatt while Phoebe and Cole got passed whatever it was they needed to get passed for them to be a successful team.

And it was a team they needed to be if they were ever going to survive...

x x x

Leo tiptoed quietly down the hall trying carefully not to wake anyone who had fallen asleep. He came to Piper and Wyatt's room and feelings of love and relief came over him - feelings a husband would have for his wife, a father for a son.

He gently planted a kiss on top of his sleeping baby boy's head and smiled as Wyatt gurgled in his sleep. 'He's so cute!' Leo thought to himself.

Then he turned to his wife, Piper. His beautiful wife. His wife that had been there for him and had never given up on their love. A wife that held her composure through so many hard times. A wife that fought the Elders with Leo that the two might be able to finally be one in holy matrimony. All he could do was smile and study her incredibly beautiful features. She smiled in her sleep and whispered, "Oh Leo."

This only made Leo's grin wider. He hoped Piper wouldn't take the news of Cole horribly; he already knew that Paige would be immature and only hold a grudge. But he prayed to God and to the Messiah that Piper - the one she needed most - wouldn't abandon him in this time of need.

Piper didn't know what all whitelighters and Elders knew. She didn't know that the end was coming. And the worst part was that neither good nor evil knew who would win...

x x x

Paige slept peacefully. That's all there really is to say. Paige didn't have a job other than being a witch and part whitelighter. She lived her life one step at a time, and she enjoyed the thrills and surprises that came with it.

x x x

"Cole, you can't be my whitelighter," Phoebe told. "Are you crazy? Did you forget your brain when you came back to life... again?"

"Well, Phoebe, if I can't be your whitelighter then explain to me how I am?" Cole asked. Phoebe only stuttered, and Cole took the opportunity to zing his ex-wife as she had previously zung him. "What's the matter Phoebe? Not the brightest crayon in the box? Are you a few sandwiches short of a picnic basket?"

"Cole, I don't have time for this. I'm tired, sleepy, exhausted-"

"Those words are all synonymous. Wow, maybe you aren't the brightest crayon in the box," Cole cut her off with.

Phoebe just looked at him. "If you love me, how could you be this mean?"

"When exactly - since I've been here, I mean - did I tell you that I loved you?"

Phoebe just looked at him. He nodded to himself that he had chosen the right words and orbed out of her room.

'Damn it... Orbs... He was telling the truth,' Phoebe thought to herself. She got ready for bed and for once, fell asleep.

x x x

Piper's alarm clock went off and she arose to find Leo sitting on the bed looking at her.

"Hey, honey," Leo sweet-talked as leaned in for a kiss.

"Hey! And sweetie, if you had been hear earlier, we would've had time, but it's one o'clock in the morning and I have to get down to P3."

"Aw!" Leo began to actually start rebuking, but he let it slide. Instead he asked: "Can I tag along?"

"Um..." Piper thought for a second. "Only if you wake up one of your sister-in-laws and tell them that they need to be sure to listen for Wyatt."

"Okay!" said Leo. "I choose Paige!" And so he went into Paige's room with a baby monitor he hooked up and came back moments later.

"Let's go, babe!" said Leo as he put his arm around her, trying to pretend like they were young and it was a new relationship. In ways it was; when marriage starts, everything changes. And it had only been two years...

x x x

Cole ended up at his penthouse. He didn't know if he still lived here or not, but considering that it looked like all of his things were still in place, he figured he would live there until someone told him otherwise. After all, what were they gonna do, kill him? He was already dead! And even if they did kill him, it's not like he wouldn't just come back.

He grabbed what he hoped was a fresh beer out of the refrigerator and sat on the couch. He turned on the television and flipped through the channels. 'Nothing; nothing; nothing; nothing; nothing; nothing; nothing,' he thought as he scanned them one by one. 'Maybe I should go out and see what the world is doing,' he thought to himself. Hey, it was a Friday! Someone had to be doing something!

He walked along the busy streets of San Francisco. Walking was a popular form of transportation there. He liked it at first, until he saw all sorts of couples walking along the streets also. Guys with girls, girls with girls, guys with guys. 'Interesting...' he thought to himself. He walked faster keeping his head down trying his best not to make any visual picture of a guy and a girl together, for it would only remind himself of what he and Phoebe could've been if he hadn't of screwed it up - which, by the way, is only what he thought. But it wasn't true...

He accidentally broke apart a group of three - a woman with a guy on each arm. He didn't mean to, it's just that he wasn't watching. "Oh, sorry!" Cole and one of the men said at the same time.

"Wait," said the second man (whom he didn't bump into). "Cole?"

Cole looked at the features of the group of three. He knew them, but what were they doing in San Francisco?

x x x

Oh, my, and God were the only words that Cole had been able to get out of his mouth. He hadn't seen these people in years... at least eighty of them.

"Cole, it is you!" exclaimed the same man who had spoken up before.

"K... Kyle!" Kyle threw his arms around Cole. Cole was surprised. He hadn't seen Kyle since he had been twenty-seven. That was the age when Cole joined the Brotherhood of the Thorn.

"Dude, I haven't seen you in ages!" Kyle exclaimed. He released his grip around him when the woman walked up to hug him.

"Hey, Avril," Cole said peacefully. They broke apart, and Cole looked at the third man. Cole had only met him once and it was only for a few seconds.

"Billy as I recall; is that correct?" questioned Cole.

"Yeah, Billy," told the man Cole had bumped into.

"Where are you three doing here?" Cole asked.

"We just moved here two days ago," said Avril. "We've been checking out local clubs. Wanna come?"

Cole hesitated. He wanted to go, but he hoped they weren't going to go to P3. "Uh... sure," he replied.

"Great! We're headed to P3! They've got some hot new band playing there tonight," Billy intervened.

"Great," Cole said unenthusiastically, though no one noticed.

"Awesome! We can catch up!" Kyle exclaimed.

"Yeah... awesome..."

x x x

Phoebe woke up in a cold sweat. Nightmare. 'I need to stop having those,' she thought to herself. She tried to go back to sleep but was unsuccessful. She got dressed in some casual clothes and decided to go down to Piper's club. Phoebe knew she was working tonight and decided to get some sisterly advice. However, she hesitated on whether she should reveal Cole being alive or to just disguise that fact like Phoebe has done before.

x x x

Piper was at the bar when her younger sister had entered. Phoebe looked like she had some sleep, yet, oddly, she still looked restless. Phoebe approached the bar. "Hey," said Piper. "Rough day?"

"Yeah, that, and week, and year, and life. Gosh, why does everything have to be so difficult?" Phoebe replied.

"Yeah... if I knew that, I promise you that I wouldn't be here working."

Phoebe gave Piper a weak smile, and Leo walked up to join the two ladies. He had been listening to the band.

"And what band is this?" Phoebe asked her older sister.

"Kyle's Fault," Piper told. "You've probably never heard of them. I discovered their website when surfing the net and listened to their demo. When I asked them to play, they took the gig without question."

"Website?"

"W W W dot Kyle's Fault dot com," Piper stated.

"Yeah, but since when do you use the internet?"

"I was surfing, okay? Sometimes life gets that boring. And besides, it helps me feel normal."

"Alright, alright; I get it. Normal."

"Hey Phoebe, how did that thing go with that person?" Leo tried to disguise, though it was clearly obvious to Piper that they both knew something that they weren't saying.

"And why would I tell you?" Phoebe answered.

"God, I just wanted to know. Curiosity... leave me alone."

"Alright, you two, spill," Piper commanded.

"Spill what? There's nothing to spill!" Phoebe tried to assure... with no such luck, I might add.

"If you don't tell me, I'm gonna think you and Leo are sleeping with each other..." Piper trailed. Piper was trying hard to hold in her laugh and keep her poker face, for she knew if she cracked, they wouldn't tell her a thing.

As if on cue, they both said together: "Cole is alive!"

"What?" Piper shrieked. Most people could hear her over the loud alternative band playing and turned to see what the matter was. When Piper regained composure, the band drew the crowd's attention back on them.

"What?" Piper asked, this time more quietly.

"Cole is alive," Phoebe repeated in the same pitch and tone.

"How can that be?"

"I don't know!" Phoebe quickly replied. She figured that she would wait upon telling her of the whole whitelighter thing. No woman deserved that much bad news at once. Heck, even Phoebe could hardly take it at once!

"Cole really is alive!" Piper said.

"Yeah, way to repeat what I just said," Phoebe stated. She noticed Piper was staring elsewhere, and when Phoebe turned around and looked where her sister was staring, she saw Cole walking down the stairs with two men and a woman. Cole saw Phoebe, Piper, and Leo at the bar. He made eye-contact with Phoebe but quickly looked away.

But all Phoebe could do was sit there and stare at the man she loved for the best two years of her life. For two years, they had been together. Two years...

Cole brought the three up to the bar and introduced them to the two Charmed Ones and Leo. "Guys, this is Phoebe, Piper, and Leo." He had pointed to each one. Then he told them the names of the three: "This is Billy, Avril's boyfriend; Kyle and Avril, they're my brother and sister."