Chapter Five

In the sunroom, engrossed by the laptop's display, Cole didn't hear the sounds of the sisters' footsteps behind him.

Piper was just about to question Cole's invasion of her sister's privacy when he opened a video clip of Phoebe.

'Hey, Cole, here's the May update," Phoebe greeted as she leaned back in her office chair, "but I gotta do it quick 'cuz Elise called a meeting and I can't miss it." She rolled her eyes, "Everyone knows she's gonna announce that Jamie from layout's been promoted to editor but anything to make sure we're all in the office...Anyway," she smiled, "they're bound to serve those yummy little danishes I love so I'm not about to complain. Oh, wait, almost forgot..." She quickly stood and turned to the side, pulling her blouse tightly against the slight bulge that was now focused onscreen. "Look, I'm showing," she excitedly said as she moved her hand around the outward curve of her belly, "really showing! I'm even wearing a maternity skirt today!" She sat down and her glowing face again filled the screen, "I know could've probably bought a regular skirt in a larger size but, dammit, I'm pregnant and I wanna be able to go into a maternity store and buy a new outfit!" She was quiet a moment before she admitted, "I guess I was getting a little worried, gaining weight with nothing to show for it. A couple of trashy tabloids even suggested I wasn't pregnant at all and that it was only some publicity stunt. Never mind. I can handle any rumor, slight, or put-down people throw my way because I know I'm pregnant with a healthy baby." She nibbled on a cracker, "Could do without the nausea but I think I'm finally done with that phase. Anyway, the doctor assured me that some women with my build might not start showing until late in their third trimester and that I was perfectly fine. I'll leave all the details in the written journal." She picked up a photo from her desk and displayed it for the camera, "Isn't she beautiful? Oh, I know it's still a bit early to tell for sure but I know we're having a girl." Phoebe stared at the sonogram and whispered, "She has to be." She placed it back on the desk but didn't look at the camera. "I still can't believe this's happening. Oh, Cole," she finally looked up, "all my planning when I had that premonition, I never in a million years expected it to come true like this. If I had..." She shook her head, "Maybe we wouldn't be together but you'd still be here to be a father to your baby. For everything else you were capable of, I know you would've been a good father." She wiped away the tears welling in her eyes but managed a bright smile, "The baby's developing normally and --"

"Unless she's lying about that too," Paige complained, uncomfortable watching the clip. Phoebe actually kept a diary for him? How many other secrets was she still keeping? "Is the baby normal or is Phoebe hiding demonic powers from us?"

Cole automatically stopped play and spun, "Do you mind? This is private." The sisters frowned in annoyance and he sighed, "I've seen all the clips and read every entry in the journal. The baby hasn't displayed any powers."

Piper let out a breath of relief even as she realized, "We're back to splitting hairs again. Phoebe told us she kept the baby's father up-to-date about everything. She didn't even lie about it not being possible for the father to be with her."

"And that makes it okay?" Paige pointed at Cole, "Looks like it is possible after all. And we'll all be paying for it."

Cole shut down the program and stood, "Maybe you ought to try thinking of Phoebe for a change." But he quickly shook his head, "Hell, look who I'm trying to convince." He glared at them, "If you'd been back in my time, I could understand why you tried to vanquish me in the attic. I have been acting rather...insane...lately."

"You got that right," Paige muttered.

"But we're not back in my time," he stated, "we're in yours, a time where I've been dead for six years. Now I don't expect absence to make the heart grow fonder, certainly not in your case, but I haven't done anything in the past six hours to warrant your self-righteous, sanctimonious, bit--"

"We get it, Cole," Piper angrily interrupted.

"I don't think you do," he argued, "so let me tell you how it's going to be now. We will find this demon and vanquish it and then you will back off me, back off Phoebe. And you will accept whatever decisions we make concerning our lives and our baby."

"Leo said you were still angry," Piper commented, "hell, you admitted it yourself, so why are you still here? You know how we feel about you and you know Phoebe's only tolerating you now because she got scared by the portal."

Cole raised an eyebrow in amusement, "Is that so?"

But Piper continued, "You don't belong here. Not in this time and not in Phoebe's life. So why don't you just do us all a favor and leave before anyone gets hurt even more."

"You haven't been hurt tonight. And are you so sure I'm out to get you," he questioned, "that you're willing to hurt Phoebe to get me out of your lives?"

"Phoebe will get over any minor disappointment over your departure," Paige reasoned, "just like she's always done. All she wants is to have a healthy baby without having to look over her shoulder in fear of evil overpowering her."

"You don't know her at all," he accused. "She denies who she is because of your fears more than hers. Why do you think she cares so much about what you think? Why else would she have kept this a secret?" The sisters seemed confused so he explained, "Phoebe and I understand each other. We complement each other. We may act stupidly at times and we may even want to strangle each other but we both acknowledge the good in ourselves as well as the bad or, as you probably think, the evil. You can't seem to do that."

"What're you talking about?" Paige exclaimed. "We love Phoebe. She's a sweet, good --"

"You see," he interrupted, "you're about to launch into a lecture about what a good person Phoebe is and that I'm out to corrupt her. I'm not arguing how good she is. I know it, I've felt it. But you think she's just like you, that she can just flip that switch and shut off her dark side. You can't seem to acknowledge that there's a part of your sister that does enjoy the power, the freedom, the ability to act without --"

"That's where you're wrong," Piper stopped him. "You didn't know Phoebe growing up. Didn't see the rebel she was. Yes, Phoebe has a wild streak. But she's grown up and she's tamed it. Sure, there were incidents where she slipped because she was possessed or under a spell. But you actively bring it out in her. She loses all sense of reason when she's with you. And you force her to question everything she'd come to believe about herself."

"If I've forced her to do anything," he claimed, "it's to be true to herself and to embrace all aspects of her personality. There's no 'good Phoebe' or 'evil Phoebe,' there's just 'Phoebe.'"

"And you've accepted this 'just Phoebe'?" Piper asked, neither denying nor accepting his claim about her sister. "I recall you spent quite some time trying to turn Phoebe into 'evil Phoebe.'"

"For my own misguided reasons," he rued. "But I see a lot more clearly now. Amazing the power a tiny unborn child can wield."

"So we're supposed to believe you've changed?" Paige challenged. "Just like that, you're completely sane again?"

"You seem to think you're the only ones who got hurt but," he countered, "I've got news for you, I've been hurt too. And I've suffered in ways you can't possibly imagine, ways I would never wish upon you. And yet I still come back. Like a fool, I come running back."

"And so does she," Paige sadly acknowledged. "She found herself six years in the past and ran straight into your arms."

"It wasn't like that," he told them. "As far as I knew, you'd just tried blowing me up and Phoebe didn't care enough about me to even hate me. But then she appeared tonight in the middle of my binge, she appeared and seemed different. She was regretful and apologetic, even sad and lonely. She wasn't the woman I'd fallen in love with but she wasn't the same woman I'd seen the week before who'd dismissed me with such apathy. She was a woman searching for peace."

"And you gladly gave it to her, didn't you," Piper suddenly accused.

Cole corrected her, shaking his head, "We gave it to each other. For a while anyway...Right before she disappeared we began arguing and it was almost as if what we'd just said, just done, hadn't happened."

"But it did," Piper said, "as we found out three weeks later when Phoebe came to us, crying, with the news."

"She accomplished her mission," Paige spat. "Maybe it'd been from a demonic attack but she ensured that her premonition would come true. She got herself pregnant."

Piper was taken aback by Paige's vehemence and reminded her sister, "She was scared, no, terrified, that she was pregnant when she hadn't been in a serious relationship for a year. Of course, now we know why, worrying about what was growing inside her. All her plans rui--"

But Cole balled his hands into fists and interrupted, "Don't ever belittle your sister like that again! Phoebe would never, ever, lower herself to using tricks and deception in order to conceive. What happened tonight was honest and beautiful and completely unexpected."

Piper suddenly blinked and announced, "That's why Phoebe was affected by the portal." She looked at him, "It's been six months since Phoebe was in the past, since she last saw you. But for you, it's only been, what, a few hours?"

"Not even," he warily nodded. "She faded in my arms and I thought I'd hallucinated the whole thing. I got dressed, planning on getting drunk all over again, when I was pulled into some sort of vortex. Next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of a circle in someone's bedroom."

"Alicia," Piper informed him, "had just summoned her dead fiancé with Phoebe's help. They didn't realize they would be opening a time portal."

"Phoebe didn't realize a lot of things," Paige commented. "I can only imagine the spell they used if it called back her dead ex too."

Cole let it pass and continued, "No one was around and I found a newspaper in the living room. It only took one look at the date for me to realize that I'd been pulled through a time portal."

"Why didn't you try going back on your own?" Piper wondered. "Why come to us? Especially if, in your time, we'd just tried vanquishing you."

"I may have all these powers," he smiled wryly, "but even I can't manipulate time. I was...hoping...that since enough time had passed, Phoebe would help send me back. Believe me, I never expected that those few hours with her had been real enough to --"

"Get Phoebe pregnant," Paige sighed. "So," she asked her sister, "what's the connection with Phoebe and the portal?"

"Cole arrived forward in time barely an hour or so after conceiving a baby with Phoebe," Piper replied with worry, "that she's already been carrying for six months. His being here threatens the baby bec--"

"I'm not a --"

"Not intentionally," she conceded, "but you know as well as anyone the consequences of going through time. What if your being here changes the circumstances of the baby's conception? You could trigger a miscarriage or, just as bad, Phoebe might suddenly not be pregnant at all."

"Maybe you do care about them," he considered.

"Of course we do," Paige indignantly replied. "We love Phoebe and that baby. We know how badly she's wanted her premonition to come true. We just wish it could've been anyone else but you."

"We don't always get what we wish for," he quietly replied. "Still, the baby's not in danger because I arrived here after the baby was conceived so nothing I do here now can change that fact. It's a part of both our pasts. Phoebe's reactions are probably from what Leo said, an unexpected effect of being in close contact to a time portal to the past."

"Maybe then," Paige cautiously offered after a glance to her older sister, "we should call a truce, at least until this mess with the demon is solved."

"Agreed," Cole nodded. "Did you find the innocent?"

Piper shook her head in sadness, "We were too late. Her body wasn't there but there was blood."

"So much blood," Paige murmured before she held up a necklace. "We found this. It's probably what Phoebe saw."

Cole fingered the leather band and examined the pewter charm hanging from it. "I recognize this symbol. It belongs to a New York coven. I came across them once and...never mind. If she was wearing this, she's probably a visitor in town. It must have been a powerful demon, possibly upper level."

"Why do you say that?" Paige asked as she took back the necklace.

"Because," he replied, "these charms also serve as the witches' amulets of protection."

"Phoebe saw it in the girl's hand," Piper considered.

Cole shook his head, "Even if she was holding it, it should've protected her."

"We're going to the attic to scry," Paige announced just as Phoebe entered the room. "Phoebe, what're you doing up? You should be resting."

"I couldn't," she admitted, "I was too worried. You didn't find her, did you?"

"I'm sorry, sweetie, we were too late." Piper rubbed Phoebe's arm, "Why don't you sit down and I'll make you a snack?"

"No," Phoebe dejectedly said, "it's okay. You should go scry before the demon kills another innocent."

"I'll fix her something," Cole offered.

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Blood still dripping from its claws, it dropped the carcass on the steps of the police station.

It hunched over the torn flesh and inhaled the smell of death.

And then the air wavered around it and it disappeared.

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Phoebe leaned back in the wicker loveseat and handed the plate to Cole. "Thanks," she wearily said, "I didn't realize I was so hungry."

"Because you haven't kept anything down all night," he commented when he finally decided to sit next to her.

She caught his gaze drift down to her belly and shyly encouraged him. "It's okay, if you want." She gently tugged on his hand and placed it on her belly. She smiled as his fingers twitched slightly and began to move on their own, lightly rubbing back and forth.

Cole smiled in wonder, "It's amazing, Phoebe, I can't bel--" He froze when the baby suddenly kicked. "D'you feel that? Of course you did. Hello, baby girl," he leaned forward and practically pressed his nose to Phoebe's belly and he laughed when the baby kicked again.

Phoebe smiled indulgingly while he gently poked her and laughed when the baby kept kicking. "She knows you're her daddy," Phoebe assured him as he finally sat up straight. "I've told her but --"

"Thank you," he interrupted, brushing some strands of hair behind her ear with one other hand while the other remained flat along her belly, "for keeping the journal, for keeping the video log. You didn't know that I would ever see it."

"I know," she acknowledged, "but I needed to do it. For her. I needed her to know who her daddy was. The man I fell in love with, the man I remembered." She shrugged, "The rest will come later when she's old enough to ask questions, when she's old enough to understand the answers."

Cole's hand caressed her abdomen and he somberly informed her, "Your sisters are right, I have to go back." He felt her tense and immediately pulled her into his arms, "You know I do. I have to make sure history isn't changed."

"I know," she whispered. She pressed her face close to his chest, "The odds've always been against us...it's not fair."

"Everything happens for a reason," he commented, his lips buried in her hair. "Your Grams taught you to believe that." He pushed her back slightly and, this time, guided her hand back to their baby, "She's the reason, Phoebe. She's the reason we were meant to meet and fall in love."

"I'm going to miss you," she cried as she flung herself back in his arms. "I don't want you to go. Not now when --"

"I know, baby," he whispered in a choked voice. "I want time to work it out with you. I want time to watch her grow inside you. I want --"

"Time," she completed for him, looking up at him. "We've never had enough time."

"If it's only for tonight," he honestly told her, "it's more than enough."

"Not for me," she disagreed as she pulled away and stood up and offered him her hand. "Come upstairs with me."

"You're not up for anything," he cautioned while taking it, "strenuous."

"I know," she nodded, "but all I really want is to lie there next to you. To feel your arms around me."

"Then who am I to argue," he smiled as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

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"I love you," Alicia called out from her spot in bed, "but you've been gone for ages and I'm getting hungrier by the second."

Frank entered with a snack tray, "Well, kiddo, it's taken me some time to gather together all your favorites of the junk food diet. I guess I noshed a bit myself. So, let me make it up to you now and see what I can do about satisfying your hunger." He placed the tray on the dresser and leaped into the bed to Alicia's surprised delight.

"This doesn't seem real," she murmured between kisses. "Just this morning I was mourning you and now..."

He caressed her cheek, "I'm sorry for what happened."

Surprised, she pulled back, "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't've known Zarlak would attack. You died trying foolishly to save me."

"See? You are angry with me." He traced a thin scar along her earlobe, "And you were hurt. Why didn't you have your Whitelighter heal it?" He trailed light kisses along her neck and rolled her on top of himself.

"I'm not angry that you died doing something good, I'm angry that you died, period." She fingered the scar before lowering her head and kissing his chest, "It's a reminder of what I lost that night. A reminder of who you helped me become, such a change from the pathetic little mouse I'd been all my life."

"A strong, vibrant, beautiful witch," he groaned when she nibbled at a nipple, "who's about to become the very death of me."

Alicia immediately froze and slid off him. She pulled the sheet around her and tried not to shiver. "Don't ever say that," she requested.

Frank pulled her close and apologized as he held her.

She pressed herself closer to him and quietly asked, "Come with me tomorrow to see Phoebe? If it wasn't for her, I don't think I would've succeeded in bringing you back."

"Tomorrow," he promised. "Tonight, all I want to do is hold you in my arms."

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