Cole woke up and was surprised. He hadn't slept for years. How long had it been since he had been killed? One year? Two years? The sleep felt good. He just wanted to relax and drift off again.

He heard the foreign sound of a shower running. For a minute he thought maybe he was in the manor and his vanquish and the thereafter had been some huge nightmare. As his eyes focused in the darkness he knew that definitely wasn't true.

He was at Vanessa's place. Now he remembered.

Vanessa.

When his life had changed, when Cole had been with Phoebe, he had rarely thought about her. The past year as he watched Phoebe and her sisters live their lives he had thought about her a lot.

Had she changed? No.

Had Phoebe changed? Oh yeah. Definitely.

"I know your think about me," he heard Vanessa say. He realized she was at the door.

"Well, with your psychic abilities, I'm not surprised. I thought you said you didn't read people's mind anymore. Invasion of privacy, yes?"

"More like I don't want to know what people are thinking. They can be thinking some weird things. You – you're different."

"How?"

"You intrigue me."

Cole laughed. He got out of bed and grabbed his shirt which he had hastily thrown on the floor the night before.

Vanessa walked to the window and drew the blinds. Light filtered into the room. He was surprised to see she was wearing attire that looked nice. Business casual.

She smiled. "Breakfast?"

"Sure. What have you got?"

"Nothing. I was thinking of having some fries, maybe a burger.."

Cole chuckled. "You still don't cook?"

"I never will, darling."

Vanessa left the room slowly. Lingering. He had missed her flirtatious personality. She could never do anything – not even exit a room – without doing it sexily.

Cole followed her.

"Before we get too comfortless with each other I need to ask you one thing," Cole said. "How you stand in the magical world."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. Staying with a psychotic, innocent killing, demon slaughtering psychopath ex-girlfriend might lower your chances with your princess."

If Cole hadn't known better he would have thought she was either hurt or mad. Sarcasm was dripping from the statement and he knew she was concerned.

"It's not just that. I'm not a demon anymore," he told her.

"Correction. You're a sissy demon that will use your powers against the nature of what those powers were created for."

Cole sighed.

She continued without skipping a beat. "Maybe if energy ball throwing was made for killing, that's what it should be used for."

She looked at him. It was almost a glare. She seemed to be just trying to figure him out.

"Your answer?" he asked.

"Your girlfriend should not be forcing decisions onto you," she said, frowning. She paused and sighed. "The answer is no. I'm a material girl, you know that."

That he did. He'd remembered he could manipulate her into doing anything if he bought her new shoes, new clothes, even some new jewelry. It made him think she was hypocritical. If she was using powers for herself.. that wasn't what her demonic powers were created for either!

"Personal gain is so different from switching sides," she said, reading what he had been thinking.

"Why do I talk if you know what I'm gonna say before I even decide to say it?" he asked.

"Now, if you had these powers too, we would have no use for verbal conversations," she winked at him.

Just like that, their fight disappeared. The energy in the room was again flirtatious. Their relationship was back to the old days – intense and extremely temperamental.

A phone beeped and she picked up her cell phone from the table. She flicked the cover open and looked at the screen for a while.

"Work. Welcome to the new world.." she muttered.

"Speaking of, my newly resurrected friend, time to get back to the world which absolutely and definitely means getting a job. I can get you one. Want to go to work?"

He chuckled. "I think I'm either classed as dead or missing so you'll have to wait until I get things cleared up."

"You could always be a fugitive, hey?" she said chirpily. He smiled.

She grabbed a pen and started writing. She handed a slip of paper to him.

"My cell number. We are absolutely meeting for lunch. No questions."

"Would I dare defy an ex-demon psychopath?" he joked. Of her look, "your words, not mine".

"I said psychotic."

"You also said psychopath."

She rolled her eyes and turned away. "Call me", she called over her shoulder as she headed towards her front door.

"Have a lovely day at work," he called out. "Which car can I borrow and where do I find the keys?"

Cole knew where he was heading. To his ex-wife's house. The same ex-wife that on sight, nearly always threatens to banish him to yet another ghost plane. Vanquishing, specifically.

Suicidal?

Of course. What else could his first day back in he world bring?