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

Cole orbed out without waiting for any objections. He didn't want to be there. He didn't want anyone to see him like that.

He found himself orbing into Phoebe's room. But then again, where else did he have to go? He had no home, no job, no girlfriend...

Of course, he wanted Phoebe with all of his heart. He wanted her more than anyone had ever wanted someone before. He needed her, actually. He needed her like crazy. She was his destiny, and he knew it. He knew it.

x x x

Leo and the Elders quickly said goodbye. Of course, the Charmed Ones still had a problem: the power of three. It had been broken - over Cole. Once again, it's his fault. It seemed like things were always his fault; that's why he was always blaming himself for everything. But that wasn't true! It wasn't his fault at all. It's just that sometimes live throws you curves; it's up to you whether you want to straighten them out or not.

Leo orbed Phoebe and Piper down to the Foyer, and Paige orbed herself. The girls stood, and Leo dismissed himself so the sisters could talk.

"So," Piper began, uneasy.

"So," Paige followed.

Phoebe sighed. "So..."

"Long night," Piper tried.

"Yeah," Paige followed.

Phoebe sighed again. "Yup..."

Piper decided to start since, after all, she was the older sister. "Phoebe, look; I'm sorry about what I said about Cole. I didn't know-"

"Me either, but that didn't stop me from caring about him," Phoebe cut her off.

"But it's different for you," Paige told.

"How-"

"Because you're in love with him, Phoebe - whether you like it or not, you are in love with that man. You can hide it; you can fight it; but it won't go away. You can close your eyes to things you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart to things you don't want to feel. I can tell. You love him," Paige informed. "You love him..."

"I-I know."

Paige didn't hear Phoebe quite clearly. "Sorry, what did you say, Phoebs?"

"I said: 'I know'." She looked at her sisters. "How else could I put it into words? All I ever do is think about him. I feel him close to me all the time. I still have a picture of us framed sitting up on my nightstand for crying out loud! I know I love him, and I'm not ashamed of it." She paused. "I'm ashamed of myself. And not because I love him - that's not why I'm ashamed of myself. It's because mine and Cole's love was and still is strong enough to save us. But the thing is: I didn't want it to. I didn't want our love to save me. I didn't want to become the Queen of the Underworld, and I certainly did not want to be married to the Source of All Evil. And then, after we vanquished him in the penthouse... I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time. I felt loneliness, and I felt heartache. And it killed me. But then he came back again. And I didn't want to accept that. I didn't want everything to be okay, because I was afraid that once it was, it would get taken from me. That I would lose him again and I couldn't bear losing him - not again, not ever. And now... he's my whitelighter? Wh... what does that mean?"

"I think you should talk to him about this," Piper said after a slight hesitation.

Phoebe stood there. "But he's nowhere to be found. And even worse: he doesn't want to be found. He's gone. And now that he knows what I know and that you guys know, why would he want to? I mean, sure: it's a load off. But still, that is something that should be kept in a diary or a journal - but your ex-wife and her sisters? Come on!" She looked down at the floor. "Besides... you guys hate him anyways. Even if he came back and we were to get back together; you two would still hate him, and you would try and keep me from him."

"Phoebs," Paige said. Phoebe looked back up. "It... - oh, I can't believe I'm gonna say this - ...it's okay with me if you get back with Cole."

"Really!" she began.

"Really," Piper replied, indicating that it was alright with her, as well.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Phoebe hugged her sisters.

"Aw, that's so cute," Leo said in the doorway.

"Hey! Why, you little eavesdropper!" his wife whined. "Have you been spying on us this whole time?"

"Yeah, and that's not all. Look at the Book." Leo held up the Book of Shadows that was in his hands. The triquetra had been re-established.

"No one dare mess with us!" Phoebe said in her baby voice. "Oh, uh... Leo... do you know where Cole is?"

"No," Leo fibbed. (He was Cole's whitelighter as well, remember? He could sense him, too.) "But why don't you go wait for him in your room. After all, he'll probably only want to see you, so he'll probably orb straight there."

"Yeah, okay," she said as she followed his orders and headed up the stairs.

x x x

Cole sat on what used to be his side of the bed. So many good memories took place in this room. A devilish smile crept upon his face as he remembered many sleepless nights - but the good kind of sleepless nights - that kind of sleepless nights where you don't sleep because you're too busy making love.

His smile quickly faded when he heard a creek in the floorboards in the hall. 'Someone is coming,' he thought. But, instead of orbing out, he stayed still.

The doorknob turned. Cole held his breath.

"Phoebe," he whispered, recognizing the figure that was now standing just across from him. She walked over to her side of the bed. Maybe it was instinctive; maybe she didn't know if she was ready for him yet.

"Cole," she whispered. "I'm tired."

"Of course," Cole said, looking at the floor. He had a 'how-could-I-have-been-so-stupid?' look plastered on his face.

He watched her climb under the covers on her side of the bed. Cole turned to leave. "Cole," Phoebe began. He whipped around; then regained his composure, trying not to get his hopes up. She continued, "Could you stay with me?"

A small smile snuck onto Cole's face, but he tried to hide it. (He failed - Phoebe noticed.) He slid under the covers on his side. Phoebe moved over, halfway onto his side and into his arms like they had never been apart.

"Thanks," Phoebe whispered, her head lying on his chest; his arms around her and hers around him.

Cole wasn't sure where this put them, but he liked it. He liked it a lot, in fact. And he watched her sleep so peacefully in his arms. And when he got the urge to, he'd stroke her cheek. And when he needed to, he placed light kisses on her forehead. It was like this for hours.

Phoebe's eyes fluttered open to find her tall, dark, and handsome ex-husband-ex-demon-now-whitelighter looking straight back at her with his sexy, blue eyes that seemed to search her very soul. The only thing she could do was get lost in them. His eyes were like a galaxy; they had so much depth to them, and you could oh so easily lose yourself in them.

He smiled at her. Oh, that smile! That charming, sexy smile. What was wrong with Phoebe? She kept getting lost in him. She kept feeling a strange spinning motion like she was diving into a headlong spiral that was stealing her breath and stopping her heart. Wait, no. She had heard that before... Somewhere, she had heard that. Then she remembered. Prue had told her that very thing. She said it was 'falling in love', to quote her. Then everything that had been happening in the past two nights flooded back to Phoebe in an instant - the rape, the memories, the sister-bonding time. She remembered what had happened last night - how she asked Cole to stay, and he did.

She loved him! And she wasn't afraid! Not anymore!

"Is something wrong?" he asked her sincerely. Phoebe shook her head 'no'. She just supposed that she was thinking too hard, and that the look on her face gave Cole a bad impression that something was wrong. "Phoebe, can I ask you something?" Cole asked simply. She nodded. "I was wondering if... if you could give us another shot, give me another chance. Just one last chance?"

"I don't know, Cole. If we're meant to be, don't you think it would've worked out between us already? Maybe... maybe we're just not meant to be." Phoebe was confused. She wasn't sure what she wanted. She loved him, true, but then all the hurt she had felt swirled around her head and inside her heart. She wanted to be with him, but was all the heartache that seemed to come with it worth it?

"If we weren't meant to be, then break the rules and stay with me," Cole said.

He looked at her dead in the eyes.

She pressed her lips against his in a passionate kiss. Neither pulled apart when they notices tears were running down their cheeks. They had wanted this for so long, and now they had it. They had it, and they were going to keep it, no matter what. And it was worth the pain.

Cole felt his insides being ripped apart, and he felt the strongest pull over him. He tried to fight it, but couldn't. They pulled apart, and Phoebe saw white lights appearing around Cole. Pain was plastered all over his face. It looked as if he couldn't breathe.

"Cole!" Phoebe called. But it was too late. White lights took him from her. He was gone. He just... vanished.

x x x

"Cole! Cole!" Phoebe continued to yell. Each time she said it, it turned more and more into an alarming shriek. Piper, Paige, and Leo were so worried that they had orbed into Phoebe's room to get there faster.

"What is it Phoebe?" Piper and Paige asked in unison with worried looks on their faces.

"What happened? Where's Cole?" Leo asked.

"They took him, Leo. The Elders took him from me! - just like they took you from Piper when you two were trying to get married during that eclipse!"

Leo looked up. "They're calling. They must want to tell me something, or maybe you."

Phoebe began to bawl, tears leaving her eyes without holding back. She didn't care if they saw her cry; the man she loved (and finally got back together with) was just taken from her.

Would the madness ever stop? AGH!

Leo orbed out when the sisters started to try to comfort Phoebe.

x x x

"Leo, nice of you to join us," Abraham said in a deep voice.

"Why'd you take him from her?"

"Oh, never mind that. Frankly, it's none of your business."

"Frankly, it is my business. That man you snagged is my best friend; and because you took him, my sister-in-law is hurting. Both of those reasons make it my business. Now, where is he?" Leo demanded.

"I'm in here!" Cole screamed, but you could barely hear him.

"Oh my God! Abraham! He's a whitelighter! He's one of the good guys! You don't lock the good guys up in a soundproof, plastic cell. And let me guess, is it magic-proof, too?"

"Well, except for my magic, yes. And it should be soundproof. But obviously, it's not quite working."

"Abraham!" Leo screamed.

"What? He needs to be taught a lesson. I told him to never get together with Phoebe. I told him that it was the one thing that I would not tolerate. I told him that there would be consequences. And Leo, let me tell you something: the consequences haven't begun yet."

'Okay, what's wrong with that picture?' Leo thought.

"Y-you're not Abraham," Leo stuttered. "Who the hell are you!"

The perpetrator smiled maliciously. "Okay, you caught me... I'm not Abraham..." He slowly morphed into his normal appearance, almost anti-climactically.

"Oh my God!" Leo said.

The plastic cell shattered into thousands of pieces.

"We'll meet again, Leonardo." He turned to Cole. "Coleridge, thanks for being such a good sport."

"Where'd you put Abraham, you bastard!" the Charmed One's whitelighter demanded.

"Oh... he's... around."

"What does that mean? What does that mean?"

The perpetrator flamed out. It was... Big B... the Source...

"Let's get out of here, Leo," Cole informed.

x x x

The two men orbed back into the Halliwell Manor shortly after Leo had left. Piper gave Leo a kiss, and Phoebe ran into Cole?s arms. "I thought I had lost you just when I hat gotten you back," Phoebe whispered in his ear.

"No, baby; don't worry. I'm here now." He gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then worked his way to her lips. Then they broke apart, but she was still in his arms.

Of course, she just stayed there while Leo explained what had happened, and that he turned into the Source. Phoebe flinched when he said that. It was him. The same guy who raped her. Luckily, Cole was there. He was always there.

Piper took note of Phoebe's twitch. "Phoebe, everything okay?" she asked.

Phoebe looked up at Cole and Cole back at her. "You should tell them," he said in dismay.

She nodded in affirmation. She told her sisters and Leo about what had happened - what the Source had done, how Cole had saved her, and that just thinking about it scared her to death. Paige and Leo said and did nothing. But Piper walked over to her little sister and hugged her for the two seconds she was out of Cole's arms. But after her sister finished hugging her, Phoebe scampered back to her newly-reunited boyfriend. She couldn't help it; when she was there, she just felt... safe. Everyone has a safe place; he was hers, and she was his.

"We're all in danger," Cole spoke again after another uncomfortable silence.

Piper said: "Why are we all in danger?"

"Because... because-"

"Because..." Piper dragged on.

Cole took a deep breath. "The Source - he's... he's-"

"He's..." Piper dragged again.

Cole gave her a glare and said: "He's my father."

Piper said: "Hmm... that's gotta suck."