Chapter 18: Stay

Disclaimer: You have to be kidding me.

A/N: Didn't I tell you I'd be better with the updates? I ask again for you guys to please help me with this. I mean it's up to me to write the story, but I don't want to make it so crazy that it makes you guys stop reading.

"Piper!" Prue yelled as she broke the silence. "Unfreeze Leo! Pam didn't freeze so she'll keep dying if he doesn't finish healing her!"

Piper was about to raise her arms as to unfreeze Leo when Pam rose from the floor of the mausoleum.

"No, Prue, it's alright," she said a bit drained of energy, I'm fine. Leo got the job done fine," she smiled wryly as she started to get up.

"You should stay down fro a while, I mean, just to make sure," Piper said as she walked over to Pam.

"I think we have bigger problems," Pam offered as she saw Phoebe bawling next to a frozen Cole.

"What's he doing?" Prue asked of Phoebe. She hadn't been paying attention to what was going on with them.

"The pain," she started, "he said it was too much. He wanted to end it. To save me. Us."

"By killing himself," Prue said solemnly.

Phoebe nodded slowly.

"He'll unfreeze soon, Leo can't heal him. So….." Piper started

Knowing what Piper was going to say, Phoebe made her way over to Cole and began to take the athamae from his hand. She looked up at his face and saw a frozen tear under his eye.

"How would this have stopped it?" she said silently to him, even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

She continued to take the athamae out of his hand and handed it to Piper.

Just then both Leo and Cole broke from the freeze.

Noticing that Pam was no longer under his hands, Leo looked up to see what was going on.

"Did you freeze me?" Leo asked a bit offended.

"Oh get over it Leo," Piper said jokingly.

Leo smiled and rose from the ground.

Cole looked down at his hands and then at Piper.

"I need that," he said loudly, "don't you understand? This is the only way! Why don't you understand?"

"Cole there has to something else we can do," Prue tried to rationalize.

"Something else? You heard him, heard what he's going to do. How can you say there's something else? There is nothing else"

Cole was now beside himself with psychosis as he rushed over to Piper to try and get the blade from her.

Just as Piper was ready to freeze him again, Phoebe spoke softly from behind them both.

"Cole," she said gently, and Cole stopped mid-step, "please stay. Just stay, stay with me."

Cole turned around to face Phoebe; half ashamed to show his face to her.

"Phoebe, you know I love you. And that's why I have to do this. I know you understand."

"Understand? You want me to understand? The one person I love more than anything in this life or any life, for that matter is about to take his own life and you want me to understand?"

"Phoebe….." Cole started

"No, Cole, don't. It's you. It's me and it's you. We'll get through this. We're the Charmed Ones. He's evil. Fighting him is what we do."

"Phoebe, you know it's not that simple," Cole said shaken.

"Cole, I'm making it that simple. It'll all be okay as long as you stay here with me."

Phoebe went to Cole and hugged him. At first he was hesitant to hug back, but he loosened up after a second.

"I think we should go home and talk some of this out. Ya know, make a plan," Pam said still weak.

"Yeah, me too," Leo commented, "everyone, take my hands."

"How very touching," the source said as he watched the scene through the Oracle's crystal ball, "so they think they can outsmart me. They have no idea what I am. What I can do. It's all fun and games until somebody looses a life."

A/N: Not as good as I think it could have been. But I don't want to introduce too much until I've worked on where it's going more. So review please and ask questions and give suggestions.