"So, that was Leo as white lighter, huh? Shimmery lights and Elder talk?"

"Yeah." Prue turned her head to the side. She didn't look directly at Andy, but she saw him in her peripheral. She kept waiting for him to fade away, like he'd done the night before, but he stayed solid, as though she could actually touch him, yet she knew her hand would only fall through his body.

"He didn't seem too happy to see me."

"That's because he knew it meant bad news. Leo doesn't really care for bad news. None of us do."

"He was, dare I say, standoff-ish."

"He doesn't know you like I know you. Knew you."

"Know me."

Prue turned to face him head on, and his eyes were still bright, twinkling with knowledge of things that Prue wasn't sure she really wanted to know. He'd been watching her all that time, staring down from whatever patch of clouds guardians stood watch on, and he had seen her pain and guilt. If she weren't a witch, if she and her sisters weren't the ever powerful Charmed Ones, he'd have still been alive. Without a secret to keep, she and Andy could have found their way back to each other. As it were, it would only come to be in her death, and he was there to stop it.

"The long and the short of it is, Cole was sent by the Source to kill the Charmed Ones. He's had the chance, but he either failed or just didn't take it. Now, it's a matter of him not taking it."

"He wasn't at my..." Prue stopped and shook her head. "He was there, but he wasn't. And he faded, in the vision I saw. He faded."

Phoebe shook her head and sighed. "First Cole's a demon, then Prue's getting visions. Do I ever get a break?"

"Phoebe, please." Piper sighed and looked at Andy. "Go on."

"Nice to know you three haven't changed a bit." He chuckled softly, still able to find even the smallest bit of humor to somewhat ease the tension of the news that he bore. "He's not going to do it, and he'll be destroyed. Leo won't be there to save Prue, and in the guilt of his failure, he returns back to mope with the Elders. The two of you are left alone, and in your own grief, you're vulnerable. No more Charmed Ones equals Hell on Earth... literally."

A pregnant pause filled the air as each of the witches took in a deep breath. That was definitely a story in a nutshell. However, there were so many holes in it that even if they asked questions for the next ten years, it wouldn't all be filled in. Yet, they had to try to at least fill a few.

"This doesn't tell us how I... I mean... can you tell us how I..." Prue sighed. Though she had said it earlier, she couldn't look at Andy and admit that she was going to die. "Let me rephrase." She thought for a few minutes, then said, "Okay, in the vision... dream... whatever... I saw Piper and me getting knocked out. I went through the window. Where was Phoebe and where was Leo?"

"First... Phoebe was with Cole, down in the underworld. Leo was up talking to the Elders."

"Wait a minute! Why was I down there?"

"You were sent to find a demon to reverse time."

"Uh... what? Excuse me?"

He rolled his eyes. "You just can't let me make a long story short, huh? Here goes." He began to walk slowly back and forth, like a teacher in front of his class. "You're going to find out about Cole. You're also going to claim to vanquish him, but you won't, and there's this long series of events..."

"I vanquish Cole!"

"No! Can I continue? Thank you. Jeez... it'd be nice if the interrupting bit had changed." He shook his head, then continued. "To cut it short, Cole decides to try and be good. He's gonna try and help. But the day comes when your secret is found out. The Elders send you to find Tempus to set time back. You end up making a deal with the Source..." He held up his hand. "Don't say it. You don't need to know because if all goes well, none of this is gonna happen. Now, you make the deal, but you and Cole have to stay. He sends a demon that you got past the first time, but on the repeat, you won't do it. He kills Prue and thinks Piper's dead. The Source kills Balthazar for his betrayal, then bye bye world as we know it."

"So..." Piper nodded slowly as she took it all in and thought. "We have to not make it to that day. Great. What do we do?"

"You have to vanquish Cole."

"Uh uh." Phoebe shook her head. "You said he was half human, so that means we'd be killing someone. Next."

"You have to vanquish him. Once he's gone, the Source is still going to send Shax. You have to come up with a spell to vanquish him, then that's it."

"Oh great," Piper said sarcastically, "that's so easy."

"Isn't it, though? I'm always a good help."

A tinkle of bells, then a voice came from behind Andy. "I doubt I'd call this a help." Leo came walking forward, moving carefully around Andy, to stand beside Piper. "This is what the Elders called me about. Why is there a ghost here? A ghost with substantial form."

"Uh, hi, Leo." Piper's eyes widened. "Leo, say hi to Andy."

"Hey there, Leo."

"Hi." He turend back to Piper. "What's going on? The Elders said something was going to happen that would change things, then told me to come back."

"Uh, yeah, that..." Piper rolled her eyes upward, then said, "Grams sent him to help us keep Prue from dying. Good thing, right?"

"Bad thing. Piper, you know the rules about personal gain."

"It's not personal gain, Leo. If she dies, we're vulnerable. If we die, everyone dies. That's not personal gain. It's helping a whole lot of innocents at once."

"Now, you're just playing semantics."

"Leo..."

"We're not supposed to tell the future."

"You mean you know the future?"

"Time is inconsequential up there. I told you that before, didn't I?"

"Uh, no, you didn't."

"Uh, guys?" They turned Phoebe. "I think we're alone."

In the middle of the argument, one in which a marriage counselor would say was good for the relationship in getting out feelings, Prue and Andy had disappeared. They hadn't heard anything since the beginning of Leo's speech on personal gain. Phoebe looked towards the stairs and sighed. "I think we should just, uh... keep convincing Leo this isn't personal gain."

"Prue?"

She looked up as Andy called her name, shaking the memory of only minutes before from her mind. He stood across the room, his hands in his pockets, much the way he'd always stood when staring at her, waiting for her to tell him anything, preferably the truth.

"Prue, what is it?" He walked forward, taking his hands from his pockets. His arms swung lazily at his sides as he strolled across the floor.

Prue took a step back. "Everything I did was to keep you safe."

"Huh?"

"I loved you," she said softly after swallowing the lump starting to grow in her throat. "I've loved you for so long. And I didn't want you hurt. That's why I didn't tell you. That's why..." She turned her head away, knowing that he couldn't force her to look at him. He was whole, but he wasn't solid. He couldn't pull her face back to him. "I told you not to come here that day. I told you it wouldn't be safe. Phoebe saw..."

"You knew I couldn't listen to that. Did you really think I'd just leave you in that kind of danger? That I'd just... that I wouldn't try to help."

"You were an innocent, and I couldn't keep you safe."

He shook his head, and snorted. "I haven't been innocent in years."

Prue forced her face towards him and blinked away tears. "In the terms that counted, you were an innocent and I failed."

"You didn't fail, Prue. I was supposed to die. If I weren't, then something would have stopped me from coming here."

"You don't know that."

"You have no idea what I know."

"I..." She wiped at tears on her cheeks. "I don't think I want to know."

"Trust me, Prue. You don't."

His voice was soft, like Prue remembered it to be every time they talked, or at least the times that didn't turn into an argument. It was a reminder of the happier times, the days that had brought about her largest wishes that she weren't a witch and she could just have a normal life.

Prue turned her head away again as tears poured from her eyes. She walked slowly across the bedroom to stand in the window. A woman in a flower print sundress walked her black Labrador down the street, holding firmly to the leash. Three cars passed the house, two going east, the other west. Across the street, an elderly woman looked out her window briefly with suspicion, then closed the curtains.

Andy walked up behind her and she could feel him as though he were real, substantial, able to be held and lightly touched. He peered around her and stared out the window. "They can't see me, ya know. There's something about this whole thing where they don't even wanna look this way." When Prue didn't acknowledge him with a word or a movement, he sighed. "Prue, talk to me. Please."

Though the tears had stopped falling, they still streaked her cheeks. She turned slowly to him and blinked. He was so close, but in the same instance light years away. She rose one hand and reached out. She stopped, hovering just above his cheek. Her voice came strained as she whispered, "I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."

Andy blinked once, lazily, then closed his eyes. The last thing he remembered before being sent flying across the room to his death was seeing Prue lying unconscious on the floor. He hadn't even had to think as he rushed inside, all thoughts of her warnings and Phoebe's premonitions gone from his mind. She was lying so still, and if she had died, he only wanted to be there with her. If he died in the process, he wouldn't have cared.

"Neither did I," he said softly.

His hand rose and hung precariously in the air, mirroring her movement at her cheek. Prue's hand fell, and so did his. He took a step back from her and she raised her hand again. This time, he rose the hand directly across from hers and hovered just out of reach. He retook his step and his hand melded into hers, crossing through the digits and passing the wrist. Prue almost thought she could feel his fingers tickling along the small hairs on her forearm.

Andy retook the step he'd previously given up, then took another. He leaned into Prue and she rose her other hand, momentarily forgetting that it would do nothing to fend him off. She fell forward, her body slicing through his. She went down to her knees on the floor and took in shallow breaths. Andy moved around her, and she could feel him passing through her bent legs and feet.

He knelt down in front of her, his face just inches away. "You fall through me and I feel it like we were melting. When I go through you..."

"It's warm," she said, finally able to control her breathing enough to speak. "And familiar. And some part of my mind says it has to be real and I can feel... I can feel your fingers... touching me."

"Then... can you feel this?"

Before Prue could say anything or move, Andy leaned forward and set his lips to hers. He gauged the distance to be sure as not to go completely through her face. The meat of his lips passed just far enough that the line of their mouths touched. The kiss was chaste by most standards, but at the same time was the most intimate thing that the two of them could have ever shared.

With rain falling anew from her eyes, Prue took one crawl backwards, separating herself from Andy. Steadying her body on one arm, she rose the other and touched her lips with the tips of her fingers. Salty tears touched the ends of her fingers and traced the outline of her hands, seeping into the corners of her mouth.

She lowered her hand back to the floor and let her head fall forward. Her hair fell like a curtain into her face. She watched her tears fall, each one making a new dot on the carpet until they bled together into one moist mass. She turned her head back up and Andy was still kneeling before her. His eyes seemed so pained, there was so much longing in him... she wondered if he would have cried if his body were real. Prue looked up at Andy through the curtain of her hair. Her mouth opened once, then closed. She swallowed hard, then tried again. Still nothing. She lowered her head again, took in a deep breath and let it fall shakily from her lips. Finally, she looked back up at him, and on the third try, her voice, though shaky and pained, passed her lips.

"Yes," she whispered to him, "I can."