Chapter 8: Where To?

"Leo Wyatt!" A small man in black and white, and with a similarly coloured walking stick approached him in the now familiar numbness of purgatory, "heaven or Earth?"

"Earth, if possible," Leo said humbly, hardly believing he is going to have a second chance. Now that he had seen a quite an opposite scenario to what he had known before, he believed the future could turn out in any way, even in a way Chris doesn't have to die, especially that the end seemingly never was the end.

"Very well," the gatekeeper tilted his walking stick, "just one more assignment and you can be with your family."

"One more?" Leo repeated, half loosing his faith again, as he was previously told he was given the green light already.

"Yes, but that's on Earth," St Peter laughed at his baffled face. It was great fun to play tricks on the poor mortals, even if they sometimes lived for hundreds of years. Sooner or later they would be his anyway, "you're task is to take Cole Turner back with you and convince your family to accept him as a true good man, cause he proved that's what he is."

"Only that?" Leo stuttered, knowing how stubborn the sisters could be about that.

"You can use tricks," the saint advised, "the aim is important, not the tools," he waved his hand and the next moment Leo was standing in the middle of the attic, summoned by the charmed ones reading up some spell together to get him back. But no one jumped into his arms right away. They were all dumbfoundedly staring to his right, where Cole was standing hand in hand with him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh no, Piper," Paige was more shocked by the success of their manoeuvre after the numerous failed potions, searches and spells they tried to bring Leo back, rather than unhappy to see her old whitelighter, "he must be coming from the wasteland, if he is with Cole. Figures, if your Grams didn't know where he was..."

"I don't care. Are you okay?" Piper pulled him close once his connection with Cole ceased when the demon, rather dazzled himself by the real world after so many alternate realities let his hand drop limply to his side.

"Elders will be upset he's here," Paige said, after she gave her brother in law a hug herself.

"Do you think I will start worrying about them now? My main concern is getting Leo over this all and show him as much as a normal family life as we can manage," she patronised him the same way she had tried before he had killed some Elders, assuming she would have to take care of him now more than ever.

"Talking about main concerns..." Phoebe raised her eyebrows at the other man still in the room.

"Elders would have their orders to comply with what the gatekeeper decided," Cole assured Leo confidently, "Leo is fine," he said to Piper, "and as far as the concern of myself..." His words ended in his dematerialisation as an explanation.

Everybody was left staring to the place where he stood a second ago because of the white sparkling lights that became less and less in numbers, then completely disappeared when Cole finished blurring out as he did so many times in the past when he considered he wasn't welcomed by the sisters.

"What...was...that?" Phoebe pointed.

"Definitely a blur, but it had some similarities to an orb," Paige accounted for what they all saw.

"I think I can clarify that for you," Leo started to fulfil St Peter's expectations, "it would be the way of the gatekeeper's to heaven to make sure you believe me. Not even Cole's powers are of evil origin anymore," he rolled his eyes when everybody was looking at him as if he was more mad than before. Okay, maybe it wasn't going to be easy to talk to them, but with the present state of affairs and the gatekeeper's help it won't be as hard as he first thought it will be either.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How come you never stay?" Leo orbed after Cole when he disappeared once again as soon as the demon who tried for leadership was vanquished by the charmed ones with his help. Powerful he still was, they were hardly ever challenged by anyone nowadays because all demons knew the sisters were under his protection. Sometimes month had passed without any contact between him and the sisters. But not Leo, with whom he became real friends.

"Funny you ask," Cole frowned and filled himself a glass of water. It was a heated situation over at the manor a minute ago.

"I mean how long are you going to play this game? If you want Phoebe to die lusting over you, you are on the right path."

"Phoebe doesn't care about me. The only reason she still tolerates me is because I'm handy having around."

"Hah. The reason she tolerates you is that you fulfil her wildest fantasies."

"And you know that because?"

"Piper told me."

"Look, Leo, that's all nice and wonderful, but one, I don't believe that, two, even if it was true I couldn't go all through that pain again. She would eventually dump me, you know that. Did you ever see her in a successful relationship with a partner?"

"No. But...what do you expect? She had Grams, Prue and Patty to look up to as role models."

"You could say the same thing about Piper. She still manages quite well."

"It wasn't that easy, especially at first. I had to teach her what it all meant to be together. You can do the same."

"And Phoebe will listen. That will be right."

"Just try Cole, one more time."

"I don't want to. The reason for me being here is to prove myself. My job is here, if you wanna put it that way."

"And I believe that," Leo retorted in a similarly ironical way Cole said the same sentence a little before.

"Well, do you have any suggestions?"

"Yes, I do. There is a Wicca ceremony that binds two souls together as long as they live. Ask her to do that with you. It's undoable, no matter what. You can't have doubts about her if she agrees to it."

"She would never..."

"Cole! What do you have to loose? I'll get the roses, you write the note," he disappeared to the florist.

"Just like that? Without any forewords?" Cole gave him a bit of paper when he got back.

"You waited long enough I think," Leo shook his head and orbed out again, smiling at his friend. Cole didn't have time to get nervous or even think about what he let himself talked into, because Leo took less than a minute to come back, "it's a yes, you dumbass."

tbc